Thermogenesis driven by ATP hydrolysis in a model with cubic autocatalysis

Abstract

A cubic autocatalytic model is used in order to study thermogenesis of a metabolic process driven by hydrolysis of ATP, with the purpose of modeling temperature gradients measured experimentally in living cells that carry out the active transport of the Ca2+ ion. The model was taken to the scale of a living cell and the equation of energy balance was added in order to incorporate the effect of temperature in the process dynamic. A second law analysis was applied in order to determine the dynamic state and the value of the bifurcation parameters that favor efficiency of the system's thermogenic activity. Heat pulses generated with the model were studied in a 2-D array of 101χ101 cells with radii of 50nm each. Results show that at distances inferior to the 300 nm of the cell with thermogenic activity, temperature gradients that range between 0.3K and 1K can be achieved, depending on the values of the bifurcation parameters, gradients that are in accordance with those measured experimentally. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.