Chapter 19 - Cellular Automata-Based Modeling of Three-Dimensional Multicellular Tissue Growth

Abstract

This chapter presents the development of a computational model for the growth of multicellular tissues using discrete three-dimensional cellular automata. Different components of the model are reported where multiple types of cell populations execute persistent random walks on the computational grid, collide, aggregate, and proliferate until they reach confluence. The model allows us to study the tissue growth rates and population dynamics of different populations of migrating and proliferating mammalian cells. In this regard, simulation results describing the tissue growth rate for two different cell populations, each having its own division and motion characteristics, are presented. The temporal evolution of the volume coverage and the rate of tissue growth can be predicted using different cell seeding topologies and cell heterogeneity ratios. Computational models of this genre are becoming ever more important because they provide an alternative approach to continuous models and an ability to describe the dynamics of complex biological systems evolving in time.