The evolution of biological systems is strongly influenced by physical factors, such as applied forces, geometry or the stiffness of the micro-environment. Mechanical changes are particularly important in solid tumour development, as altered stromal-epithelial interactions can provoke a persistent increase in cytoskeletal tension, driving the gene-expression of a malignant phenotype. In this work, we propose a novel multi-scale treatment of mechano-transduction in cancer growth. The avascular tumour is modelled as an expanding elastic spheroid, whilst growth may occur both as a volume increase and as a mass production within a cell rim. Considering the physical constraints of an outer healthy tissue, we derive the thermo-dynamical requirements for coupling growth rate, solid stress and diffusing biomolecules inside an heterogeneous tumour. The theoretical predictions successfully reproduce the stress-dependent growth curves observed by in-vitro experiments on multicellular spheroids.
Mechano-transduction in tumour growth modelling / P., Ciarletta; Ambrosi, Davide Carlo; G. A., Maugin; Preziosi, Luigi. - In: THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL. E, SOFT MATTER. - ISSN 1292-8941. - 36:(2013), pp. 23-31. [10.1140/epje/i2013-13023-2]
Mechano-transduction in tumour growth modelling
AMBROSI, Davide Carlo;PREZIOSI, LUIGI
2013
Abstract
The evolution of biological systems is strongly influenced by physical factors, such as applied forces, geometry or the stiffness of the micro-environment. Mechanical changes are particularly important in solid tumour development, as altered stromal-epithelial interactions can provoke a persistent increase in cytoskeletal tension, driving the gene-expression of a malignant phenotype. In this work, we propose a novel multi-scale treatment of mechano-transduction in cancer growth. The avascular tumour is modelled as an expanding elastic spheroid, whilst growth may occur both as a volume increase and as a mass production within a cell rim. Considering the physical constraints of an outer healthy tissue, we derive the thermo-dynamical requirements for coupling growth rate, solid stress and diffusing biomolecules inside an heterogeneous tumour. The theoretical predictions successfully reproduce the stress-dependent growth curves observed by in-vitro experiments on multicellular spheroids.Pubblicazioni consigliate
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2519128
Attenzione
Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo