Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 25, 133-140 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap:2003086

Transformation threshold and time-dependent TAF generation in an angiogenesis model

¹ INFM, Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy
² Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
³ CONICET and FaMAF, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 5000 – Córdoba, Argentina
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, PR 00681, USA

Corresponding authors: condat@uprm.edu cacondat@yahoo.com

Received: 24 December 2002
Revised: 5 August 2003
Accepted: 26 September 2003
Published online: 2 December 2003

Abstract

Angiogenesis ensures the success of cancer growth. This enlargement of the vascular system feeding a tumor is induced by tumor angiogenic factors (TAFs), which are molecular messengers emitted by starving cancer cells. We apply a recently developed angiogenesis model to study the influence of variations in the TAF generation rate on vascular growth and to analyze the effects of changing the threshold for endothelial cell transformation, which is a crucial parameter in the description of this process.