Seventh Mississippi State - UAB Conference on Differential Equations and Computational Simulations. Electron. J. Diff. Eqns., Conference 17 (2009), pp. 197-206.

A model for gene activation

Seth F. Oppenheimer, Ruping Fan, Stephan Pruett

Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for the activation of the gene responsible for the production of the cytokine interleukin 6, IL-6. This is motivated by experimental work that indicates that exposure to certain exogenous chemicals results in changes in cytokine production. In particular, exposure to both the widely used pesticide atrazine and the legacy pesticide dieldrin, still very much present in the environment, resulted in the reduction of the production of IL-6. We develop of model of twelve ordinary differential equations to model the effect of changes in transcription factor levels on IL-6 production rates and establish basic qualitative properties of solutions.

Published April 15, 2009.
Math Subject Classifications: 92C17, 34A12.
Key Words: Gene activation; neurotoxons.

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Seth F. Oppenheimer
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Drawer MA, Mississippi State University, MS 39762, USA
e-mail: seth@math.msstate.edu
  Ruping Fan
Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy
Louisiana State University Health Science Center
1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA 71130, USA
Stephan Pruett
CVM Basic Science Department, Mississippi State University
PO box 6100, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
email: sbp7@msstate.edu

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