Multi-scale models of cell and tissue dynamics

Cell and tissue movement are essential processes at various stages in the life cycle of most organisms. The early development of multi-cellular organisms involves individual and collective cell movement; leukocytes must migrate towards sites of infection as part of the immune response; and in cancer...

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Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences physical, and engineering sciences, 2009-09, Vol.367 (1902), p.3525-3553
Main Authors: Stolarska, Magdalena A., Kim, Yangjin, Othmer, Hans G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actins
Adhesion
Animals
Biomechanical Phenomena
Cell growth
Cell Motility
Cell Movement - physiology
Cell Proliferation
Cells
Deformation
Elasticity
Epithelial cells
Gels
Humans
Mechanotransduction, Cellular - physiology
Models, Biological
Multi-Scale Models
Neoplasia
Neoplasms - pathology
Neoplasms - physiopathology
Spheroids
Stress Effects
Tumour Dynamics
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Summary:Cell and tissue movement are essential processes at various stages in the life cycle of most organisms. The early development of multi-cellular organisms involves individual and collective cell movement; leukocytes must migrate towards sites of infection as part of the immune response; and in cancer, directed movement is involved in invasion and metastasis. The forces needed to drive movement arise from actin polymerization, molecular motors and other processes, but understanding the cell- or tissue-level organization of these processes that is needed to produce the forces necessary for directed movement at the appropriate point in the cell or tissue is a major challenge. In this paper, we present three models that deal with the mechanics of cells and tissues: a model of an arbitrarily deformable single cell, a discrete model of the onset of tumour growth in which each cell is treated individually, and a hybrid continuum-discrete model of the later stages of tumour growth. While the models are different in scope, their underlying mechanical and mathematical principles are similar and can be applied to a variety of biological systems.
ISSN:1364-503X
1471-2962
DOI:10.1098/rsta.2009.0095