GROWING BONES ON THE COMPUTER—SOME PITFALLS OF A COMPUTER SIMULATION OF THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION ON BONE GROWTH

The linear arrangement of the proliferating cells in the growth cartilage of bone provides an apparently simple system for studying the relationship of cell kinetics to a gross endpoint, i.e. bone growth. The system has been reduced to a simple computer model which follows the effects of radiation on the growth of fifty or one hundred individual cartilage columns. When the computed data were compared with experimental curves some factors were discovered that had been omitted from the original model. A revised model proved of limited value in sorting out the relative importance of competing kinetic parameters but indicated some directions for future experimental studies.