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1: Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Apr 1;94(12):128701. Epub 2005 Apr 1.
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Cell fates as high-dimensional attractor states of a complex gene regulatory network.

Huang S, Eichler G, Bar-Yam Y, Ingber DE.Vascular Biology Program, Departments of Pathology & Surgery, Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. sui.huang@childrens.harvard.edu

Cells in multicellular organisms switch between distinct cell fates, such as proliferation or differentiation into specialized cell types. Genome-wide gene regulatory networks govern this behavior. Theoretical studies of complex networks suggest that they can exhibit ordered (stable) dynamics, raising the possibility that cell fates may represent high-dimensional attractor states. We used gene expression profiling to show that trajectories of neutrophil differentiation converge to a common state from different directions of a 2773-dimensional gene expression state space, providing the first experimental evidence for a high-dimensional stable attractor that represents a distinct cellular phenotype.

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PMID: 15903968 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]