Cancer can be modelled as an open, complex, (bio-thermo)dynamic and self-organizing system. Cells are complex thermodynamic systems. The living cells energy transfer, thermo-electro-chemical processes and transports phenomena can occur across their membranes, in active way; this represents a way used by the cells to actively modify their behaviours in relation to the changes of their environment. The membrane is the cell border, and the energy and mass transfer must optimized by the cell in order to live. This system, and the related processes, can be analyzed by using Constructal law, obtaining a new approach to cancer analysis. Indeed, all the living systems waste heat, which is no more than the result of their internal irreversibility. This heat is dissipated into their environment. But, this wasted heat represents also a sort of information (not organized and yet to be codified, if a non-linear logic will be studied), which outflows from the cell toward its environment, completely accessible to any observer. So, the Constructal law analysis of the irreversibility related to this wasted heat represents a new useful approach to the study of the cells behaviour. This approach allows us to consider the living systems as black boxes and analyze only the inflows and outflows of energy and mass, and their changes in relation to any environmental modification. The consequence is the analysis of the effect of the ions transport through the membrane, and the related cell-environment pH changes, with consideration on the Krebs or Warburg cycle, used for energy conversion, by the normal and cancer cells respectively. Consequently, the entropy generation related to the pH changes can be obtained, and related to mitosis/apoptosis ratio, fundamental to evaluate the probability of evolution of cancer.

Constructal law analysis of ion transfer in living cells: normal and cancer behaviour / Lucia, Umberto; Grisolia, Giulia - In: Constructal Law & Second Law Conference, CLC2017, Academia Romana, Bucharest 15-16 May 2017 / Alexandru-Mihail Morega, Sylvie Lorente. - CD-ROM. - Bucharest : The Publishing House of the Romanian Academy, 2017. - ISBN 978-973-27-2748-5. - pp. 348-369

Constructal law analysis of ion transfer in living cells: normal and cancer behaviour

LUCIA, UMBERTO;Grisolia, Giulia
2017

Abstract

Cancer can be modelled as an open, complex, (bio-thermo)dynamic and self-organizing system. Cells are complex thermodynamic systems. The living cells energy transfer, thermo-electro-chemical processes and transports phenomena can occur across their membranes, in active way; this represents a way used by the cells to actively modify their behaviours in relation to the changes of their environment. The membrane is the cell border, and the energy and mass transfer must optimized by the cell in order to live. This system, and the related processes, can be analyzed by using Constructal law, obtaining a new approach to cancer analysis. Indeed, all the living systems waste heat, which is no more than the result of their internal irreversibility. This heat is dissipated into their environment. But, this wasted heat represents also a sort of information (not organized and yet to be codified, if a non-linear logic will be studied), which outflows from the cell toward its environment, completely accessible to any observer. So, the Constructal law analysis of the irreversibility related to this wasted heat represents a new useful approach to the study of the cells behaviour. This approach allows us to consider the living systems as black boxes and analyze only the inflows and outflows of energy and mass, and their changes in relation to any environmental modification. The consequence is the analysis of the effect of the ions transport through the membrane, and the related cell-environment pH changes, with consideration on the Krebs or Warburg cycle, used for energy conversion, by the normal and cancer cells respectively. Consequently, the entropy generation related to the pH changes can be obtained, and related to mitosis/apoptosis ratio, fundamental to evaluate the probability of evolution of cancer.
2017
978-973-27-2748-5
Constructal Law & Second Law Conference, CLC2017, Academia Romana, Bucharest 15-16 May 2017
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2671073
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