Control of the Numbers of a Cell Population Consisting of Cells of Two Types

In many tissues of living organisms we encounter examples of cell populations consisting of two or more types of cells with limited lifetimes. Here cells of one type may divide into two cells of the same type or be transformed into cells of other types, the total number of cells of each type being maintained at a certain level. In this paper, by computer study of the simplest mathematical model of such a population, we learned how long the total number of cells can be maintained within defined limits. Some simple control methods by which each cell makes the decision “to divide into two,” “to transform into a cell of a different type,” or “to vanish” independently of the others, as a result of information about the total number of cells of a given type, are considered.