Mechanobiological Modelling of Angiogenesis: Impact on Tissue Engineering and Bone Regeneration - Computational Modeling in Tissue Engineering - page 385

5 Discussion and Conclusions
Providing a functional angiogenesis is required for successful regeneration of
many tissues, but has yet to be achieved for critical sizes of the trauma. The ability
to build or manipulate the microenvironment is critically important for regulating
angiogenesis in order to successfully achieve in-vivo tissue regeneration. Tissue
engineering uses materials (scaffolds) in combination with other regulators to
control the microenvironment that cells sense and facilitate tissue regeneration in-
vivo. Achieving this goal requires an interdisciplinary effort combining cellular
and molecular biology, matrix engineering, biomechanics/mechanobiology, and
micro/nanofabrication.
The development of in-vitro and in-vivo models is the typical way of analyzing
and understanding the role of each factor in the final outcome of tissue regener-
ation. However, the control of these factors and the limitation of the information
obtained from these models clearly limit their use and this gives the opportunity to
other kind of models to make a contribution: computer or mathematical models.
Therefore, computer modelling is currently a potent tool to unravel and improve
the understanding of biological phenomena.
In this work, we have reviewed many computer models that focus on the mec-
hano-biological modelling of angiogenesis in tissue regeneration and specifically in
tissue engineering following different approaches: continuum and discrete. In
addition, the authors have shown recent contributions of their own work in this field:
• A wound healing simulation is developed under a continuum approach, clearly
showing that it is highly regulated by angiogenesis.
• Bone distraction is a biological process where angiogenesis plays a key role. In
this example, a lattice cell-based model is used to simulate time-evolution of
angiogenesis during distraction.
• Cell migration in 3D under different environment conditions is fundamental for
understanding many key fundamental processes in tissue engineering and par-
ticularly in angiogenesis. Here, a first approach using a cell force-based
approach is proposed able to incorporate mechanosensing phenomenon [ 29 ]in
the process of cell migration.
Acknowledgments This research was supported by the project part financed by the European
Union (European Regional Development Fund) through the grant DPI 2009-14115-C03-01.
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