On a Tri‐Scale and Multiphase Model for the Description of Perfusion coupled to Fat Growth Effects in Liver Tissue

Abstract

AbstractIn the European Union, fatty degeneration of the liver is a major problem in human health care. Approximately 20% to 30% of individuals in Western countries have a non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The high number of people concerned can be explained by the high sensitivity of the liver due to negative environmental influences as addiction to high fat diets or alcohol consumption. High fat diets are the leading cause for NAFLD (steatosis), which is characterized by an accumulation of lipid droplets in the liver tissue. The growing fat has a high impact on the perfusion of the blood through the liver. The anatomy of the organ is characterized by a complex vascular system which changes on the different scales from a vascular branching tree to micro vessels, called sinusoids, in liver lobules. To capture the interplay between fat deposition arising in the microstructure and the perfusion on the organ scale it is important to couple the processes on each scale. For this we present a computational model for the human liver which is composed of three coupled sub models for the organ, lobule and cell scale. Due to the complexity of the organ we apply a multi‐component/tri‐phasic/tri‐scale approach, which is founded on the publication of Ricken et al. [2], coupling all relevant aspects to visualize the coupling between the fat metabolism and the hepatic perfusion. (© 2017 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)