A reduced stoichiometric model to describe metabolism in hepatocytes

Stoichiometric models are widely used in Metabolic Engineering and Systems Biology to estimate the flux distribution in cellular systems during steady-state operation. For a number of applications it is desirable to have a model with a small number of state variables. This is of particular interest, if static metabolic models are combined with dynamical models of gene expression. Such integrated models can be used to analyze, monitor and control cell culture bioreactors working as extracorporeal liver support systems. Such systems provide the option for bridging the liver function in case of acute hepatic failure until liver transplantation or until regeneration of the patient's own organ. In this contribution a reduced stoichiometric model of the central metabolism of hepatocytes, i.e. the most important cell type in the liver, is presented.