Multiscale Modeling in Vascular Disease and Tissue Engineering

Abstract

The human body, and hence the vascular system, is by its very nature a dynamic multiscale hierarchial system. This multiscale nature encompasses different length scales, from molecular and cellular levels to the tissue and organ level, as well as different physical phenomena, such as mechanical, biological and chemical processes. In arteries, vascular cells alter their growth, phenotype and extracellular matrix production in response to macro mechanical changes. These cell level events can in turn accumulate and emerge at the tissue level as pathological conditions such as atherosclerosis and intimal hyperplasia. These cardiovascular diseases evolve through adaptation of cells and tissues over days to months also demonstrating the multiscale nature of vascular diseases with respect to time. The challenge in vascular multiscale modelling is to create a framework which can incorporate the key mechanical, biological and chemical characteristics of this complex system at these various space and time scales to successfully capture the long-term behaviour of the system. Such a framework can then be used to gain additional insights with regards to pathological conditions within the vascular system and to improve the design of medical devices used to treat such pathologies. In the following chapter, a review will be presented of some relevant studies reported in literature which have used multiscale modelling approaches to elucidate the growth and remodelling mechanisms underlying vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, in-stent restenosis and intimal hyperplasia.