Mathematical modeling in metal metabolism: overview and perspectives.

A review of mathematical modeling in metal metabolism is presented. Both endogenous and exogenous metals are considered. Four classes of methods are considered: Petri nets, multi-agent systems, determinist models based on differential equations and stochastic models. For each, a basic theoretical background is given, then examples of applications are given, detailed and commented. Advantages and disadvantages of each class of model are presented. A special attention is given to determinist differential equation models, since almost all models belong to this class.