Effects of internal noise for calcium signaling in a coupled cell system

Abstract

We have studied the collective behavior of calcium signaling in a linear array of coupled cells, taking into account the influence of internal noise. For a single cell, the performance of the stochastic calcium oscillations shows two maxima as a function of the cell size, indicating the occurrence of system size bi-resonance. When the cells are coupled together, we find that the increase of the coupling strength or the number of cells can considerably enhance the first peak, but decrease the second one. The occurrence of the bi-resonance and the distinct dependence on the coupling are shown to be relevant with regard to the system’s deterministic bifurcation features.