Physics-based tissue simulator to model multicellular systems: A study of liver regeneration and hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence
-
Published:2023-03-06
Issue:3
Volume:19
Page:e1010920
-
ISSN:1553-7358
-
Container-title:PLOS Computational Biology
-
language:en
-
Short-container-title:PLoS Comput Biol
Author:
Luque Luciana MelinaORCID,
Carlevaro Carlos ManuelORCID,
Llamoza Torres Camilo JulioORCID,
Lomba EnriqueORCID
Abstract
We present a multiagent-based model that captures the interactions between different types of cells with their microenvironment, and enables the analysis of the emergent global behavior during tissue regeneration and tumor development. Using this model, we are able to reproduce the temporal dynamics of regular healthy cells and cancer cells, as well as the evolution of their three-dimensional spatial distributions. By tuning the system with the characteristics of the individual patients, our model reproduces a variety of spatial patterns of tissue regeneration and tumor growth, resembling those found in clinical imaging or biopsies. In order to calibrate and validate our model we study the process of liver regeneration after surgical hepatectomy in different degrees. In the clinical context, our model is able to predict the recurrence of a hepatocellular carcinoma after a 70% partial hepatectomy. The outcomes of our simulations are in agreement with experimental and clinical observations. By fitting the model parameters to specific patient factors, it might well become a useful platform for hypotheses testing in treatments protocols.
Funder
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
CONICET postdoctoral fellowship
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subject
Computational Theory and Mathematics,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience,Genetics,Molecular Biology,Ecology,Modeling and Simulation,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference139 articles.
1. Evasion of tumours from the control of the immune system: consequences of brief encounters;M Al-Tameemi;Biology direct,2012
2. Modeling immunotherapy of the tumor–immune interaction;D Kirschner;Journal of mathematical biology,1998
3. A mathematical prognosis model for pancreatic cancer patients receiving immunotherapy;X Li;Journal of theoretical biology,2016
4. Mathematical model of tumor–immune surveillance;KJ Mahasa;Journal of theoretical biology,2016
5. Mathematical model of cancer treatments using immunotherapy, chemotherapy and biochemotherapy;M Mamat;Appl Math Sci,2013