Multiphysics Computational Modeling in Cartilage Tissue Engineering - Computational Modeling in Tissue Engineering - page 258

Multiphysics Computational Modeling
in Cartilage Tissue Engineering
Manuela Teresa Raimondi, Paola Causin,
Matteo Laganà, Paolo Zunino and Riccardo Sacco
Abstract A common technique for in vitro cartilage regeneration is to seed a
porous matrix with cartilage cells and to culture the construct in static conditions
or under medium perfusion in a bioreactor. An essential step toward the devel-
opment of functional cartilage is to understand and control the tissue growth
phenomenon in such systems. The growth process depends on various space- and
time-varying biophysical variables of the environment surrounding the cartilage
cells, primarily mass transport and mechanical variables, all involved in the cell
biological response. Moreover, the growth process is inherently multiscale, since
cell size (10 lm), scaffold pore size (100 lm), and cellular construct size (10 mm)
pertain to three separate spatial scales. To obtain a quantitative understanding of
cartilage growth in this complex multiphysics and multiscale system, advanced
mathematical models and efficient scientific computing techniques have been
developed. In this chapter, we discuss the existing knowledge in this field and we
present the most recent advancements for the numerical simulation of cartilage
tissue engineering.
M. T. Raimondi ( & ) M. Laganà
LaBS, Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: [e-mail]
P. Causin
Department of Mathematics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
P. Zunino
MOX, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
R. Sacco
Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy