Systematic procedure for the reduction of complex biological reaction pathways and the generation of macroscopic equivalents

In this study, a class of dynamic models based on metabolic reaction pathways is analyzed, showing that systems with complex intracellular reaction networks can be represented by macroscopic reactions relating extracellular components only. Based on rigorous assumptions, the model reduction procedure is systematic and allows equivalent `input-output' representations of the system to be derived. The procedure is illustrated with a few examples, and a comparison is made with another recently published method for generating and evaluating macroscopic reaction schemes.