Simulating Intercellular Calcium Signaling in Epithelial Cells Using a 3D Structured Multiblock Method

Petri Fast

Center for Applied Scientific Computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory


Temporal and spatial calcium ion mobilization patterns play a key role in the regulation of cellular function. We model the dynamics of calcium mediated by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) in connected epithelial cells with a system reaction-diffusion equations on structured multiblock grids. We present a computational framework that allows for the first time the fully three dimensional modeling of intercellular dynamics of calcium, IP3 and complex buffers. We model the intercellular connections between epithelial cells using a geometrically realistic computational mesh with a simple continuum description of gap-junctions permeable to IP3. Practical grid generation techniques are discussed for a geometry with a single layer of three dimensional coupled prismatic domains each with an arbitrary polygonal top surface, representing cuboidal epithelial cells. A novel numerical scheme is presented for diffusion equations on multiblock grids with "gap-junction boundary conditions" du/dn = [u], where the normal flux across an internal boundary depends upon the jump in the local concentration across the cell membrane. We present results illustrating the biological phenomena accessible to simulations using our new numerical scheme.

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