SYNCHRONIZATION AND PROPAGATION OF OSCILLATORY ACTIVITY:
MULTI STABILITY AND HYSTERESIS
Oscillatory activity of cells has been the topic of many studies. Oscillatory activity can be due to action potential firing corresponding to the well known Hodgkin Huxley (HH) type dynamics of ion channels in the cell membrane or due to HH type IP3-¬mediated calcium oscillations in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) causing periodic oscillations of calcium transients in the cytosol. We show analytically that coupling of these two oscillatory mechanisms reveals a complex, rich spectrum of both stable and unstable states of cells with hysteresis. The predicted bi stability corresponds to experimentally observed cell states. Coupling of these oscillatory systems in the cell provides a robust mechanism for intra and intercellular signaling by propagation of activity in a network of cells.