Fig. 10From: PDE/ODE modeling and simulation to determine the role of diffusion in long-term and -range cellular signalingGradient in the cytosolic SMAD-trimer and amount of the nuclear trimer concentration for the regular formed hepatocyte. We observe a 70 % gradient (left) of cytosolic SMAD-trimer in the regular formed hepatocyte using D=1 μ m 2/s (solid line) and a 18 % gradient using faster diffusion, D=15 μ m 2/s (dotted line). A difference in the diffusion coefficient of one order of magnitude does not influence the nuclear trimer concentration, and the huge gradient in the cytoplasm seems having no influence in the nucleus which is an indication of nuclear accumulationBack to article page