Abstract
The branching systems in our body (vascular and bronchial trees) and those in the natural world (plants, trees, and rivers) are characterized by a fractal nature: self-similar branching patterns and recursive bifurcations. These branching networks have the increasing density of branches toward the terminals with decreases in branch radius to the –Dth power: D is termed the fractal dimension. We have devised the primary expression \( {N_{\mathrm{ b}}}(r)={{\left( {{r \left/ {{{r_{\mathrm{ o}}}}} \right.}} \right)}^{{-D-\alpha }}} \) that provides the number of branches in a group with a radius r in a tree, where r o is the radius of the stem and α is the exponent in the branch length–radius relation. In the branching network, the mean blood flow rate and velocity in a given vessel with radius r can be expressed as \( {F_{\mathrm{ b}}}(r)={F_{\mathrm{ b}\mathrm{ o}}}{{\left( {{r \left/ {{{r_{\mathrm{ o}}}}} \right.}} \right)}^{{D+\alpha }}} \) and \( {U_{\mathrm{ b}}}(r)={U_{\mathrm{ b}\mathrm{ o}}}{{\left( {{r \left/ {{{r_{\mathrm{ o}}}}} \right.}} \right)}^{{D+\alpha -2}}} \), where F bo is the total flow through the stem vessel of the network. Analogously, various hydrodynamic parameters, such as wall shear rate, shear stress, and intravascular pressure, are written as a function of vessel radius in a given position within the branching network. The validity of these expressions was verified by the comparison between the outcomes from the simulation and in vivo measurements from various vascular beds. For the power law, the so-called Murray’s law, it is clarified that the bifurcation exponent is equal to the sum of the fractal dimension and the branch length exponent. For allometric studies of the vascular system in mammalians, the distribution of the arteriolar ends of the capillaries in any organ is uniform independently of animal size, and then the difference in body size of mammals is attributable to the number of the basic units of the capillary and the surrounding tissue. Finally, an infarction index, the ratio of the number of the terminal branches downstream from an obstructed artery to that of the total terminal branches of a vascular tree, is also used to quantify the degree to which an organ has ischemic damage.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahlborn BK (2004) Zoological physics. Springer, Berlin
Ando J, Yamamoto K (2009) Vascular mechanobiology: endothelial cell responses to fluid shear stress. Circ J 73:1983–1992
Attinger EO (1964) Pulsatile blood flow. McGraw-Hill, New York
Baba K, Kawamura T, Shibata M, Sohirad M, Kamiya A (1995) Capillary-tissue arrangement in the skeletal muscle optimized for oxygen transport in all mammals. Microvasc Res 49:163–179
Bassingthwaite JB, Liebovitch LS, West BJ (1994) Fractal physiology. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Caro CG, Pedley TJ, Schroter RC, Seed WA (1978) The mechanics of the circulation. Oxford University Press, New York
Dawson CA, Krenz GS, Karau KL, Haworth ST, Hanger CC, Linehan JH (1999) Structure-function relationships in the pulmonary arterial tree. J Appl Physiol 86:569–583
Fåhraeus R, Lindqvist T (1931) The viscosity of the blood in narrow capillary tubes. Am J Physiol 96:562–568
Family F, Masters BR, Platt DE (1989) Fractal pattern formation in human retinal vessels. Physica D 38:98–103
Folkow B, Neil E (1971) Circulation. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Fung YC (1996) Biomechanics: circulation. Springer, New York
Gehr P, Mwangi DK, Ammann A, Maloiy GMO, Taylor CR, Weibel ER (1981) Design of the mammalian respiratory system. V. Scaling morphometric pulmonary diffusing capacity to body mass: wild and domestic mammals. Resp Physiol 44:61–86
Haynes RH (1960) Physical basis of the dependence of blood viscosity on tube radius. Am J Physiol 198:1193–1200
Holt JP, Rhode EA, Holt WW, Kines H (1981) Geometric similarity of aorta, venae cavae, and certain of their branches in mammals. Am J Physiol 241:R100–R104
Horsfield K, Thurlbeck A (1981) Relation between diameter and flow in branches of the bronchial tree. Bull Math Biol 43:681–691
Kamiya A, Takahashi T (2007) Quantitative assessments of morphological and functional properties of biological trees based on their fractal nature. J Appl Physiol 102:2315–2323
Kamiya A, Togawa T (1972) Optimal branching structure of the vascular tree. Bull Math Biol 34:431–438
Kamiya A, Togawa T (1980) Adaptive regulation of wall shear stress to flow change in the canine artery. Am J Physiol 239:H14–H21
Kamiya A, Bukhari R, Togawa T (1984) Adaptive regulation of wall shear stress optimizing vascular tree function. Bull Math Biol 46:127–137
Kamiya A, Wakayama H, Baba K (1993) Optimality analysis of vascular-tissue system in mammals for oxygen transport. J Theor Biol 162:229–242
Karau K, Krenz GS, Dawson CA (2001) Branching exponent heterogeneity and wall shear stress distribution in vascular trees. Am J Physiol 280:H1256–H1263
Kassab GS (2006) Scaling laws of vascular trees: of form and function. Am J Physiol 290:H894–H903
Kassab GS, Fung YC (1995) The pattern of coronary arteriolar bifurcations and the uniform shear hypothesis. Ann Biomed Eng 23:13–20
Kitaoka H, Itoh H (1991) Spatial distribution of the peripheral airways. Application of fractal geometry. Forma 6:181–191
Kitaoka H, Suki B (1997) Branching design of the bronchial tree based on a diameter-flow relationship. J Appl Physiol 82:968–976
Kurz H, Sandau K (1997) Modeling of blood vessel development—bifurcation pattern and hemodynamics, optimality and allometry. Comments Theor Biol 4:261–291
Majumdar A, Alencar AM, Buldyrev SV, Hantos Z, Lutchen KR, Stanley HE, Suki B (2005) Relating airway diameter distributions to regular branching asymmetry in the lung. Phys Rev Lett 95:16810_1–16810_14
Mandelbrot BB (1983) The fractal geometry of nature. Freeman, New York
Masters BR (1994) Fractal analysis of normal human retinal blood vessels. Fractals 2:103–110
Matsumoto T, Hayashi K (1994) Mechanical and dimensional adaptation of rat aorta to hypertension. J Biomech Eng 116:278–283
Matsuo T, Okeda R, Takahashi M, Funata M (1990) Characterization of bifurcating structures of blood vessels using fractal dimensions. Forma 5:19–27
Matsuo T, Nakakubo M, Yamamoto K (1997) Scale invariance of spatial distributions of tree branches, leaves, and petals. Forma 12:91–98
Morse DR, Lowton JH, Dodson MM, Williamson MH (1985) Fractal dimension of vegetation and the distribution of arthropod body length. Nature 314:731–733
Murray CD (1926) The physiological principle of minimum work. I. The vascular system and the cost of blood volume. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 12:207–214
Murray CD (1927) A relationship between circumference and weight in trees and its bearing on branching angles. J Gen Physiol 10:725–729
Nelson TR, Manchester DK (1988) Modeling of lung morphogenesis using fractal geometries. IEEE Trans Med Image 7:321–327
Niklas KJ (1992) Plant biomechanics. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Niklas KJ (1994) Plant allometry: the scaling of form and process. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Parker TS, Chua LO (1989) Practical numerical algorithms for chaotic systems. Springer, New York
Pries AR, Secomb TW, Gaehtgens P (1995) Design principles of vascular beds. Circ Res 77:1017–1023
Rosen R (1967) Optimality principles of biology. Butterworths, London
Rothe CF (1983) Venous system: physiology of the capacitance vessels. In: Shepherd JT, Abboud FM (eds) Handbook of physiology. Peripheral circulation and organ blood flow, part 1. American Physiological Society, Bethesda, sect 2, vol 3, chap 13, pp 397‒452
Schmidt-Nielsen K (1984) Scaling: why is animal size so important? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Schmidt-Nielsen K (1997) Animal physiology, 5th edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Shibusawa S, Fujiura T, Iwao T, Takeyama K (1993) Hierarchical modeling of branching growth patterns in a root system of corn (in Japanese). J Jpn Soc Agric Mach 55:111–118
Suwa N, Takahashi T (1971) Morphological and morphometrical analysis of circulation in hypertension and ischemic kidney. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich
Taber LV (1998) An optimization principle for vascular radius including the effects of smooth muscle tone. Biophys J 74:109–114
Tchebichef MP (1853) L’intégration des différentielles irrationnelles. J Math 18:87–111
Weibel ER (1963) Morphometry of the human lung. Academic, New York
West BJ, Bhargava V, Goldberger AL (1986) Beyond the principle of similitude: renormalization in the bronchial tree. J Appl Physiol 60:1089–1097
Zamir M (1976) The role of shear forces in arterial branching. J Gen Physiol 67:213–222
Zamir M (2000) The physics of pulsatile flow. Springer, New York
Zweifach BW, Lipowsky HH (1984) Pressure-flow relations in blood and lymph microcirculation. In: Renkin EM, Michel CC (eds) Handbook of physiology, microcirculation, part 1. The cardiovascular system. American Physiological Society, Bethesda, sect 2, vol 4, chap 7, pp 251‒307
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Japan
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Takahashi, T. (2014). Branching Systems of Fractal Vascular Trees. In: Microcirculation in Fractal Branching Networks. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54508-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54508-8_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-54507-1
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-54508-8
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)