Mathematics Commons^™

Signal Transmission In Epithelial Layers, Filippo Posta

Dissertations

Cell signaling is at the basis of many biological processes such as development, tissue repair, and homeostasis. It can be carried out by different mechanisms. Here we are focusing on ligand mediated cell-to-cell signaling in which a molecule (ligand) is free to move into the extra-cellular medium. On the cell layer surface, it can bind to its molecule-specific receptors located on the cell plasma membrane. This mechanism is the subject of many experimental and theoretical studies on many model biological systems, such as the follicular epithelium of the Drosophila egg, which motivates this work.

Here, we present a general mathematical …