Multiscale Computational Modeling in Vascular Biology: From Molecular Mechanisms to Tissue-Level Structure and Function - Multiscale Computer Modeling in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering - page 205

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

Heather N. Hayenga, Bryan C. Thorne, Phillip Yen, Jason A. Papin,
Shayn M. Peirce and Jay D. Humphrey

Abstract Blood vessels exhibit a remarkable ability to adapt in response to sus-
tained 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 con-
gruent 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

H. N. Hayenga
Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
e-mail: [e-mail]
B. C. Thorne P. Yen J. A. Papin S. M. Peirce
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
e-mail: [e-mail]
P. Yen
e-mail: [e-mail]
J. A. Papin
e-mail: [e-mail]
S. M. Peirce
e-mail: [e-mail]
J. D. Humphrey (

)
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, 55 Prospect Street, MEC 212,
New Haven, CT 06520, USA
e-mail: [e-mail]

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