A quantitative description of the cytostatic effects of chelators of transition metal ions (exemplified by picolinic acid and Fe2

: A mathematical model is proposed for the description of the cytostatic effects of the chelating agents of the transition metal ions on cell cultures. Chelate complexes of picolinic acid and bivalent iron ions, which play an important role in nucleic acid synthesis, were considered as an example. Kinetic equations of the theory of receptors were used for model construction. The best correspondence with the experimental dose-effect curves, obtained in the experiments on influence of various picolinic acid concentrations on division of the SPEV cultured cells, is provided by the model of threshold type. The parameters lying in the basis of the theory of receptors and relating the biological effect (cell division) to the number of ligand-receptor complexes were calculated.