2008 Annual Meeting
(382e) A Control Engineering Model for Hemostasis Following Blood Vessel Injury
Authors
In this work, we develop an engineering control system-based model of the process of hemostasis, organizing essential components in terms of their respective control system functions, i.e. as sensors, controllers, actuators, and the controlled process. By organizing key molecular interactions according to their function within the hemostatic control system, and using known biological characteristics to model them as inter-connected units, we have created a model that represents the process of hemostasis in terms of it's effectiveness at controlling blood loss following vessel injury. Our model includes mechanistic details within the framework of the overall system properties; this approach enables us to identify the molecular source of system malfunctions and design corrective action based on the desired system properties. We show how different components of the hemostatic system affect overall responses to vessel injury, and how we can use the model to formulate and test hypotheses regarding the causes and effects of different pathological conditions.