Computational modeling of combined cell population dynamics and oxygen transport in engineered tissue subject to interstitial perfusion

This work presents a computational model of tissue growth under interstitial perfusion inside a tissue engineering bioreactor. The model accounts both for the cell population dynamics, using a model based on cellular automata, and for the hydrodynamic microenvironment imposed by the bioreactor, using a model based on the Lattice–Boltzmann equation and the convection-diffusion equation. The conditions of static culture versus perfused culture were compared, by including the population dynamics along with oxygen diffusion, convective transport and consumption. The model is able to deal with arbitrary complex geometries of the spatial domain; in the present work, the domain modeled was the void space of a porous scaffold for tissue-engineered cartilage. The cell population dynamics algorithm provided results which qualitatively resembled population dynamics patterns observed in experimental studies, and these results were in good quantitative agreement with previous computational studies. Simulation of oxygen transport and consumption showed the fundamental contribution of convective transport in maintaining a high level of oxygen concentration in the whole spatial domain of the scaffold. The model was designed with the aim to be computationally efficient and easily expandable, i.e. to allow straightforward implementability of further models of complex biological phenomena of increasing scientific interest in tissue engineering, such as chemotaxis, extracellular matrix deposition and effect of mechanical stimulation.