Mathematical analyses of two-compartment model of human cholesterol circulatory transport in application to high blood cholesterol prevention, diagnosis and treatment

Cholesterol plays a vital role in human body and thus its unbalanced homeostasis leads to health problems. Elevated blood cholesterol levels are now considered a classic coronary risk factor and are suspected to lead to coronary artery diseases, causing 2.6 millions of deaths each year. However, many of the mechanisms behind cholesterol-related processes remain unknown. Mathematical and computational models can aid investigation of complex biological phenomena, yet cholesterol-focused models remain rare. Here, we develop a two-compartment mathematical model to investigate cholesterol transport in the human circulatory system. We focus on the key aspects of cholesterol circulatory transport in the lipoproteins, its de novo synthesis and bile recycling and represent them by two simultaneous linear differential equations. The solutions yield changes over time of the cholesterol levels in the liver (compartment I) and bloodstream (compartment II). Drawing from the current clinical practice, we show the application of the model to personalized high blood cholesterol prevention, diagnosis and treatment.