Morphogen gradients play a fundamental role in organ patterning and organ growth. Unlike their role in patterning, their function in regulating the growth and the size of organs is poorly understood. How and why do morphogen gradients exert their mitogenic effects to generate uniform proliferation in developing organs, and by what means can morphogens impinge on the final size of organs? The de...

A morphogen gradient is defined as a concentration field of a molecule that acts as a dose-dependent regulator of cell differentiation. One of the key questions in studies of morphogen gradients is whether they reach steady states on timescales relevant for developmental patterning. We propose a systematic approach for addressing this question and illustrate it by analyzing several models that ...

How morphogen gradients are formed in target tissues is a key question for understanding the mechanisms of morphological patterning. Here, we review different mechanisms of morphogen gradient formation from theoretical and experimental points of view. First, a simple, comprehensive overview of the underlying biophysical principles of several mechanisms of gradient formation is provided. We then...

A previously investigated basic model (System B) for the study of signaling morphogen gradient formation that allows for reversible binding of morphogens (aka ligands) with signaling receptors, degradation of bound morphogens and diffusion of unbound morphogens is extended to include the effects of membrane-bound non-signaling molecules (or non-receptors for short) such as proteoglycans that bi...

Introduction Cell response to extracellular cues is often driven by gradients of morphogenetic and chemotactic proteins. Many of these proteins are secreted in extracellular matrix(ECM)-binding form to be subsequently released proteolytically, and here we explore how this feature, along with interstitial flow, which is present in all tissues, can affect pericellular morphogen gradients. We crea...