Computational modeling of multicellular systems evolution in tissue engineering

Tissue engineering is a novel research field that covers a wide range of applications, which consist in developing biological substitutes capable to replace or repair injured or damaged tissues. In the top-down approach to tissue engineering, the biological substitutes are obtained by culturing living cells on scaffolds made of biocompatible and biodegradable materials. Cells are harvested from the patient, expanded in Petri dishes, and seeded onto scaffolds. Tissue engineering research is motivated by transplantable organ shortage. Mathematical and computational methods are used for modeling and designing scaffolds and for simulating in vivo and in vitro morphogenesis. To simulate how scaffolds are populated by cells, we developed three-dimensional computational models of cubic pore scaffolds for studying the energetic and geometric conditions that lead to a uniform and rapid cell seeding. We characterized the evolution of multicellular systems, taking into consideration the differential adhesion hypothesis, which states that cells move in their environment until they reach the minimum energy configuration of the system. Based on the Metropolis Monte Carlo method, the evolution of the cells' center of mass is analyzed, providing information about the distribution of cells in the scaffold. We also monitored the fraction of cells attached to the scaffold.