Systems Biology (Methods in Molecular Biology)

module may be regulated by a minimal set of molecular-cellular

agents according to the accumulated molecular biology knowledge

of liver [46, 47]. The molecular-cellular agents are assumed to be

proteins, as proteins are the main cell fate decision maker via

regulating signaling transduction and gene expression.

Second, the molecular-cellular agents will interact with each

other. The activation/upregulation or inhibition/downregulation

Fig. 1Core endogenous molecular-cellular network of hepatocyte. Cell cycle, apoptosis, metabolism,
hepatocyte-specific function, cell adhesion, immune response, and angiogenesis module were selected to
capture the essential features of hepatocyte. Each module was simplified and specified by a set of key
proteins. Interactions between the proteins, activation/up-regulation (green line), or inhibition/down-regulation
(red line) were summarized from well-documented and conserved gene regulatory network and signaling
transduction pathways. The core endogenous network of hepatocyte included 37 key proteins and
114 interactions

Endogenous Molecular-Cellular Network Cancer Theory 221