Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 21.7
Effect of microscopic complaint gel layers on tumor growth. Reduced cell death along
these planes leads to enhanced proliferation and thus lead to ellipsoidal tumor shapes
Fig. 21.8
Effect of high proliferation regions at symmetrically opposite ends of the tumor on the
tumor shape evolution. The effect is becomes more predominant when the tumor growth matrix is
subjected to compression
lower. If such regions of low stress exist, then they would act as enhanced cell pro-
liferation fronts, as stress induced cell death in these regions would be relatively
less compared to other regions of the tumor. This mechanism leads to symmetry-
breaking in tumor shapes, as shown in Fig.
21.7
. However, the observed ellipticity
in the tumor shape was significantly less than the
in vitro
observations. To further
understand the level of proliferation needed to produce significant ellipsoidal tu-
mor growth, we conducted an inverse study, wherein we artificially created high
proliferation regions at symmetrically opposite ends of the tumor, and it was seen
that even a small reduction in the rate of cell death in these regions (10-20 %)
leads to expected ellipsoidal shapes, as shown in Fig.
21.8
. Lastly, cell migration
from regions of high compressive stress to regions of lower compression/tension,
