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