Simple mechanical cues could explain adipose tissue morphology
Authored by Pierre Degond, D Peurichard, F Delebecque, A Lorsignol, C Barreau, J Rouquette, X Descombes, L Casteilla
Date Published: 2017
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2017.06.030
Sponsors:
French National Research Agency (ANR)
United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Platforms:
Fortran
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
The mechanisms by which organs acquire their functional structure and
realize its maintenance (or homeostasis) over time are still largely
unknown. In this paper, we investigate this question on adipose tissue.
Adipose tissue can represent 20 to 50\% of the body weight. Its
investigation is key to overcome a large array of metabolic disorders
that heavily strike populations worldwide. Adipose tissue consists of
lobular clusters of adipocytes surrounded by an organized collagen fiber
network. By supplying substrates needed for adipogenesis, vasculature
was believed to induce the regroupment of adipocytes near capillary
extremities. This paper shows that the emergence of these structures
could be explained by simple mechanical interactions between the
adipocytes and the collagen fibers. Our assumption is that the fiber
network resists the pressure induced by the growing adipocytes and
forces them to regroup into clusters. Reciprocally, cell clusters force
the fibers to merge into a well-organized network. We validate this
hypothesis by means of a two-dimensional Individual Based Model (IBM) of
interacting adipocytes and extra-cellular-matrix fiber elements. The
model produces structures that compare quantitatively well to the
experimental observations. Our model seems to indicate that cell
clusters could spontaneously emerge as a result of simple mechanical
interactions between cells and fibers and surprisingly, vasculature is
not directly needed for these structures to emerge. (C) 2017 The
Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Tags
Agent-based model
mathematical modeling
Model
growth
morphogenesis
Extracellular-matrix
Stress
Cell-migration
Adipose tissue
Image
segmentation
Lobule-like structure