Percolation, morphogenesis, and burgers dynamics in blood vessels formation

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Mar 21;90(11):118101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.118101. Epub 2003 Mar 17.

Abstract

Experiments of in vitro formation of blood vessels show that cells randomly spread on a gel matrix autonomously organize to form a connected vascular network. We propose a simple model which reproduces many features of the biological system. We show that both the model and the real system exhibit a fractal behavior at small scales, due to the process of migration and dynamical aggregation, followed at large scale by a random percolation behavior due to the coalescence of aggregates. The results are in good agreement with the analysis performed on the experimental data.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Models, Cardiovascular*
  • Neovascularization, Physiologic / physiology*