Fundamental Limits of Efficacy of Intercellular Communication by Diffusion

Abstract

We investigate the fundamental aspects of cell-to-cell signaling by diffusing signaling compounds produced at nonuniform rates using an analytical model. Given a time-averaged secretion rate, we consider the effects of “pulsing” the secretion with different pulse interval lengths. The effective communication distance increases with decreasing pulse length, but this increase is theoretically limited to approximately twice the effective communication distance in the case of steady secretion. The time intervals in which signal transfer is permitted also decrease as pulse time decreases. These results illustrate important limiting cases in which the mode of the secretion of signaling compounds can have significant effects on cell-to-cell signaling.