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Advanced Biomaterials and Devices in Medicine
June 2016, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp 19–29
Chemo-mechanical elastic modeling of carcinoma development
D.A. Bratsun1*, A.P. Zakharov2, and L.M. Pismen2
1 Perm National Research Polytechnical University, Department of Applied Physics, Perm, 614990 Russia
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000 Israel
* Corresponding author: Prof. D.A. Bratsun, e-mail: DABracun@pstu.ru
Abstract
We propose a multiscale chemo-mechanical model of the cancer tumor development in the epithelial tissue. The epithelium is represented by an elastic 2D array of polygonal cells with its own gene regulation dynamics. The cell morphology was calibrated in the model based on the experimental data. The model allows for the simulation of the evolution of multiple cells interacting via the chemical signaling or mechanically induced strain. The used algorithm takes into account the division and intercalation of cells, as well as the transition of normal cells into a cancerous state triggered by a local failure of spatial synchronization of cellular rhythms driven by transcription/translation processes. Both deterministic and stochastic descriptions of the system are given for chemical signaling. The simulations reproduce a distinct behavior of invasive and localized carcinoma. Generally, the model is designed in such a way that it can be readily adjusted to take into account any newly understood gene regulation processes or feedback mechanisms affecting chemo-mechanical properties of cells.
Keywords: cancer modeling, signaling, circadian rhythms, time-delay, systems biology
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