A Computational Model of Cell Migration in Response to Biochemical Diffusion

Abstract

The Computational Sciences and Engineering Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is partnering with the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine to design a computational model describing various factors related to the development of intimal hyperplasia (IH) in response to arterial injury. This research focuses on modeling the chemotactic and haptotactic processes that stimulate vascular smooth muscle cell migration into the intima. A hybrid discrete-continuous mathematical model of cell migration in response to biochemical diffusion was developed in C++. Chemoattractant diffusion is modeled as a continuous partial differential equation, whereas migration of the cells is modeled as a series of discrete events. Results obtained from the discrete state model for cell migration agree with those obtained from Boyden chamber experiments.