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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Examining BCL-2 Family Function with Large Unilamellar Vesicles
Published on: October 5, 2012
Robustness analysis identifies the plausible model of the Bcl-2 apoptotic switch
Chun Chen1, Jun Cui, Wei Zhang
1State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
In this paper two competing models of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) apoptotic switch were contrasted by mathematical modeling and robustness analysis. Since switch-like behaviors are required for models that attempt to explain the all-or-none decisions of apoptosis, ultrasensitivity was employed as a criterion for comparison. Our results successfully exhibit that the direct activation model operates more reliably to achieve a robust switch in cellular conditions. Moreover, by investigating the robustness of other important features of the Bcl-2 apoptotic switch (including low Bax basal activation, inhibitory role of anti-apoptotic proteins and insensitivity to small perturbations) the direct activation model was further supported. In all, we identified the direct activation model as a more plausible explanation for the Bcl-2 apoptotic switch.
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