Mechanobiological modelling of angiogenesis: Impact on tissue engineering and bone regeneration

Abstract

Angiogenesis is essential for complex biological phenomena such as tissue engineering and bone repair. The ability to heal in these processes strongly depends on the ability of new blood vessels to grow. Capillary growth and its impact on human health has been focus of intense research from an in vivo, in vitro and in silico perspective. In fact, over the last decade many mathematical models have been proposed to understand and simulate the vascular network. This review addresses the role of the vascular network in well defined and controlled processes such as wound healing or distraction osteogenesis and covers the connection between vascularization and bone, starting with the biology of vascular ingrowth, moving through its impact on tissue engineering and bone regeneration, and ending with repair. Furthermore, we also describe the most recent in-silico models proposed to simulate the vascular network within bone constructs. Finally, discrete as well as continuum approaches are analyzed from a computational perspective and applied to three distinct phenomena: wound healing, distraction osteogenesis and individual cell migration in 3D.