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Multiscale Computational Modeling in Vascular Biology: From Molecular Mechanisms to Tissue-Level Structure and Function

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Multiscale Computer Modeling in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering

Part of the book series: Studies in Mechanobiology, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials ((SMTEB,volume 14))

Abstract

Blood vessels exhibit a remarkable ability to adapt in response to sustained alterations in hemodynamic loads and diverse disease processes. Although such adaptations typically manifest at the tissue level, underlying mechanisms exist at cellular and molecular levels. Dramatic technological advances in recent years, including sophisticated theoretical and computational modeling, have enabled significantly increased understanding at tissue, cellular, and molecular levels, yet there has been little attempt to integrate the associated models across these length and time scales. In this chapter, we suggest a new paradigm for identifying strengths and weaknesses of models at different scales and for establishing congruent models that more completely predict vascular adaptations. Specifically, we show the importance of linking intracellular with cellular models and cellular models with tissue level models. In this way, we propose a new approach for incorporating events across these three levels, thus providing a means to predict phenomena that can only emerge from a system of integrated interactions.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported, in part, via NIH grants HL-86418 to JDH and HL-82838 to SMP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Heather N. Hayenga

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Bryan C. Thorne, Phillip Yen, Jason A. Papin & Shayn M. Peirce

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, 55 Prospect Street, MEC 212, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Jay D. Humphrey

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  1. Heather N. Hayenga
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  2. Bryan C. Thorne
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  3. Phillip Yen
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  6. Jay D. Humphrey
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Correspondence to Jay D. Humphrey .

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  1. Tel Aviv University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Amit Gefen

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Hayenga, H.N., Thorne, B.C., Yen, P., Papin, J.A., Peirce, S.M., Humphrey, J.D. (2013). Multiscale Computational Modeling in Vascular Biology: From Molecular Mechanisms to Tissue-Level Structure and Function. In: Gefen, A. (eds) Multiscale Computer Modeling in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering. Studies in Mechanobiology, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials, vol 14. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/8415_2012_147

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