ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Cellular metabolism, the integrated interconversion of thousands of metabolic substrates through enzyme-catalyzed biochemical reactions, is the most investigated system of intracellular molecular interactions. Activities of most if not all of the enzymes involved in cellular metabolism are regulated by end products and intermediates of corresponding pathways. This complex network of positive and negative feedbacks as well as genetic regulation of expression level provides flexible adaptation of the metabolic network to fast and slow changes in the external environment. It is the overall dynamic nature of the cell that determines not only its present properties but its future ones as well. The cellular regulatory system is responsible for maintenance of homeostasis and for transitions between different physiological states, so it is extremely important to include regulatory properties (effects) of metabolic pathways into cell models. This can be achieved by using the kinetic modelling approach.
