On a mathematical model for tissue regeneration

We propose a PDE-ODE model for tissue regeneration, obtained by parabolic upscaling from kinetic transport equations written for the mesoscopic densities of mesenchymal stem cells and chondrocytes which evolve in an artificial scaffold impregnated with hyaluron. Due to the simple chosen turning kernels, the effective equations obtained on the macroscopic level are of the usual reaction-diffusion-taxis type. We prove global existence of solutions to the coupled macroscopic system and perform a stability and bifurcation analysis, which shows that the observed patterns are driven by taxis. Numerical simulations illustrate the model behavior for various tactic sensitivities and initial conditions

An in-silico approach to meniscus tissue regeneration: Modeling, numerical simulation, and experimental analysis

We develop a model the dynamics of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and chondrocytes evolving in a nonwoven polyethylene terephtalate (PET) scaffold impregnated with hyaluron and supplied with a differentiation medium. The scaffold and the cells are assumed to be contained in a bioreactor with fluid perfusion. The differentiation of hMSCs into chondrocytes favors the production of extracellular matrix (ECM) and is influenced by fluid stress. The model takes deformations of ECM and PET scaffold into account. The scaffold structure is explicitly included by statistical assessment of the fibre distribution from CT images. The effective macroscopic equations are obtained by appropriate upscaling from dynamics on lower (microscopic and mesoscopic) scales and feature in the motility terms an explicit cell diffusion tensor encoding the assessed anisotropic scaffold structure. Numerical simulations show its influence on the overall cell and tissue dynamics