| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 機械工程研究所 === 100 === Various organs and tissues of the human body are covered with capillaries, mainly composed of a layer of endothelial cells. The capillaries are where blood and surrounding tissues exchange materials. The human body relies on the capillaries to provide the organs and tissues with oxygen and nutrients; at the same time capillaries help remove the metabolic waste to maintain the tissue function. In order to prevent necrosis of tissues and organs, the whole network of the capillaries is essential to engineered tissues.
By developing a mathematical model that includes cell density, gel density, and gel displacement, this study simulates the early stage behavior of vasculogenesis generated by the endothelial cells cultured on the fibrin gel. The model describes the cell migration characteristics and the gel displacement by the traction of the cells. A linear analysis is performed to check whether the system parameters will enhance or inhibit the cells to form a non-uniform distribution. By classifying the parameter as being stabiling and destabilizing, nonlinear stimulations are also carried out.
Results from simulation show that due to the cell-gel interaction, the lacunae will appear over the cell population. As time goes by, the lacunae will expand and combine with other lacunaes in the surrounding. By testing the cell number density and defining the structure of network index, simulations show the gel’s network structure forms only for a adequate amount of cells.
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