title: Percolation, morphogenesis, and burgers dynamics in blood vessels formation.
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.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Matematica, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gamba
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ambrosi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coniglio
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Candia
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Talia
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giraudo
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Serini
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Preziosi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bussolino
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000502:physiology*