ICMS Conference on
Computational Modelling in Medicine

Steven R McDougall (Heriot-Watt, UK)

Mathematical modelling of the influence of blood rheological properties upon adaptive tumour-induced angiogenesis

Abstract

We present a theoretical investigation of the influence of blood flow through a tumour-induced capillary network. The network is generated in response to tumour angiogenic factors (TAFs), which are released from hypoxic cells associated with a solid tumour. We first describe a new model for tumour angiogenesis, which aims to describe the capillary growth process at the cellular level by taking into account the local properties of the host tissue affecting endothelial cell migration. We then incorporate blood rheological properties into the formulation and investigate the influence of wall shear stress induced by the blood flow during dynamic vascular growth. We then go on to examine a number of feedback mechanisms affecting vascular resistance and network architecture. The mechanisms considered include those proposed by Pries et al. (1998) and take into account both haemodynamic (non-linear viscosity) and metabolic constraints. Subsequent simulations of blood perfusion in these adaptive networks allow us to propose new therapy protocols and to assess their efficiency in a more realistic way.


Scripted by Dugald B Duncan, Heriot-Watt University