TOPOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL PATTERNS GENERATED BY A CELLULAR-AUTOMATON MODEL OF THE PROLIFERATION OF A CANCER CELL-LINE IN-VITRO

A well-suited model to simulate cellular population dynamics is the tw o-dimensional cellular automaton model, which consists of a lattice of sites, the value a(i,j) of each site being updated in discrete time s teps according to an identical deterministic rule depending on a neigh bourhood of sites around it. A cellular automaton is described which m imics cell population proliferation by replacing the site values by th e age and the cycle phase of cells. The model takes into account the s ize of the cells. It is used to simulate the proliferation of the huma n breast cancer cell line MCF-7 and the results of the simulation are compared with experimental data obtained from a light microscopic imag e analysis of the proliferation process. The initial configuration of the cellular automaton is obtained from the discretization of the resu lts of the initial stage of the image processing. After each day of pr oliferation the pattern obtained from the simulation is compared to th e experimental result of the corresponding image analysis. The compari son is made from a topographical point of view through the concept of the minimal spanning tree graph. The agreement between experiment and model is a good starting point to complex models such as cell prolifer ation under growth effecters or drugs.