Abstract
ObjectiveHemodynamics-induced low wall shear stress (WSS) is one of the critical reasons leading to vascular remodeling. However, the coupling effects of WSS and cellular kinetics have not been clearly modeled. The aim of this study was to establish a multiscale modeling approach to reveal the vascular remodeling behavior under the interaction between the macroscale of WSS loading and the microscale of cell evolution.MethodsComputational fluid dynamics (CFD) method and agent-based model (ABM), which have significantly different characteristics in temporal and spatial scales, were adopted to establish the multiscale model. The CFD method is for the second/organ scale, and the ABM is for the month/cell scale. The CFD method was used to simulate blood flow in a vessel and obtain the WSS in a vessel cross-section. The simulations of the smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation/apoptosis and extracellular matrix (ECM) generation/degradation in a vessel cross-section were performed by using ABM. During the simulation of the vascular remodeling procedure, the damage index of the SMC and ECM was defined as deviation from the obtained WSS. The damage index decreased gradually to mimic the recovery of WSS-induced vessel damage.Results(1) The significant wall thickening region was consistent with the low WSS region. (2) There was no evident change of wall thickness in the normal WSS region. (3) When the damage index approached to 0, the amount and distribution of SMCs and ECM achieved a stable state, and the vessel reached vascular homeostasis.ConclusionThe established multiscale model can be used to simulate the vascular remodeling behavior over time under various WSS conditions.
Highlights
Vascular remodeling is a process that the vessel changes its structure and function to adapt to the environmental alterations
Vascular remodeling is a common pathology of various vascular disorders, such as atherosclerosis, bypass graft failure, in-stent restenosis, and arteriovenous fistula failure (Browne et al, 2015)
A low wall shear stress (WSS) region was observed, and we randomly selected a cross-section in this region
Summary
Vascular remodeling is a process that the vessel changes its structure and function to adapt to the environmental alterations. Vascular remodeling is a common pathology of various vascular disorders, such as atherosclerosis, bypass graft failure, in-stent restenosis, and arteriovenous fistula failure (Browne et al, 2015). It is affected by a variety of internal and external factors, for example, biology, chemistry, and physics, among which hemodynamics plays a important role in vascular. Hemodynamics-induced low wall shear stress (WSS) is one of the critical reasons leading to vascular remodeling (Chatzizisis et al, 2008; Yu et al, 2015; Luong et al, 2016). Low WSS usually refers to WSS less than 1 Pa (Malek et al, 1999; Wentzel et al, 2012; Li et al, 2014; Wang et al, 2016)
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