Mathematical Biosciences Institute, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. gcraciun@mbi.ohio-state.edu
We develop a dynamical system model for the transport of neurofilaments in axons, inspired by Brown's "stop-and-go" model for slow axonal transport. We use fast/slow time-scale arguments to lower the number of relevant parameters in our model. Then, we use experimental data of Wang and Brown to estimate all but one parameter. We show that we can choose this last remaining parameter such that the results of our model agree with pulse-labeling experiments from three different nerve cell types, and also agree with stochastic simulation results.