首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
   检索      


Critical conditions for pattern formation and in vitro tubulogenesis driven by cellular traction fields
Authors:Namy Patrick  Ohayon Jacques  Tracqui Philippe
Institution:Equipe Dynacell, Laboratoire TIMC-IMAG, CNRS UMR 5525, Institut de l'Ingénierie et de l'Information de Santé (In3s), F-38706 La Tronche cedex, France.
Abstract:In vitro angiogenesis assays have shown that tubulogenesis of endothelial cells within biogels, like collagen or fibrin gels, only appears for a critical range of experimental parameter values. These experiments have enabled us to develop and validate a theoretical model in which mechanical interactions of endothelial cells with extracellular matrix influence both active cell migration--haptotaxis--and cellular traction forces. Depending on the number of cells, cell motility and biogel rheological properties, various 2D endothelial patterns can be generated, from non-connected stripe patterns to fully connected networks, which mimic the spatial organization of capillary structures. The model quantitatively and qualitatively reproduces the range of critical values of cell densities and fibrin concentrations for which these cell networks are experimentally observed. We illustrate how cell motility is associated to the self-enhancement of the local traction fields exerted within the biogel in order to produce a pre-patterning of this matrix and subsequent formation of tubular structures, above critical thresholds corresponding to bifurcation points of the mathematical model. The dynamics of this morphogenetic process is discussed in the light of videomicroscopy time lapse sequences of endothelial cells (EAhy926 line) in fibrin gels. Our modeling approach also explains how the progressive appearance and morphology of the cellular networks are modified by gradients of extracellular matrix thickness.
Keywords:Angiogenesis modeling  Endothelial cell network  Cellular traction  Biogel  Biomechanical instabilities  Bifurcation  Finite element method
本文献已被 ScienceDirect PubMed 等数据库收录!
设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号