System Analysis of a Programmed Cell Death Model

Apoptosis is a programmed cell death by which
the organism removes unwanted cells. Its core reactions can
be described by a system of differential equations exhibiting
multiple steady-states. In this paper we analyse how this model
can include both very slow dynamics for the lag phase before
apoptosis (in theory up to several days) while the apoptosis itself
is more switch-like with changes occurring within minutes. We
both describe how the trajectories evolve during the lag phase
and show which of the states have the most impact on the slow
dynamics.