Scaling of joint mass and metabolism fluctuations in in silico cell-laden spheroids
Ermes Botte, Francesco Biagini, Chiara Magliaro, Andrea Rinaldo, Amos Maritan, Arti Ahluwalia
Abstract
) is maintained. The in silico pipeline described enables the prediction of the number of experiments needed for an acceptable collapse and, thus, a consistent estimate of scaling parameters. Using the pipeline, we also show that scaling exponents may be significantly different in the presence of joint mass and metabolic-rate variations typically found in cells. Our study highlights the importance of incorporating fluctuations and variability in size and metabolic rates when estimating scaling exponents. It also suggests the need for taking into account their covariations for better understanding and interpreting experimental observations both in vitro and in vivo and brings insights for the design of more predictive and physiologically relevant in vitro models.