title: Simulation study of pO2 distribution in induced tumour masses and normal tissues within a microcirculation environment.
abstract: The biological microenvironment is interrupted when tumour masses are introduced because of the strong competition for oxygen. During the period of avascular growth of tumours, capillaries that existed play a crucial role in supplying oxygen to both tumourous and healthy cells. Due to limitations of oxygen supply from capillaries, healthy cells have to compete for oxygen with tumourous cells. In this study, an improved Krogh's cylinder model which is more realistic than the previously reported assumption that oxygen is homogeneously distributed in a microenvironment, is proposed to describe the process of the oxygen diffusion from a capillary to its surrounding environment. The capillary wall permeability is also taken into account. The simulation study is conducted and the results show that when tumour masses are implanted at the upstream part of a capillary and followed by normal tissues, the whole normal tissues suffer from hypoxia. In contrast, when normal tissues are ahead of tumour masses, their pO2 is sufficient. In both situations, the pO2 in the whole normal tissues drops significantly due to the axial diffusion at the interface of normal tissues and tumourous cells. As the existence of the axial oxygen diffusion cannot supply the whole tumour masses, only these tumourous cells that are near the interface can be partially supplied, and have a small chance to survive.
authors.affiliation: a Intelligent Systems for Medicine Laboratory (ISML), Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, University of Western Australia , M050, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009 , Australia.
authors.forename: Mao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Peng Paul
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Wen
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D002196:Capillaries / Q000378:metabolism; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004058:Diffusion; D006801:Humans; D008833:Microcirculation; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000378:metabolism*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D010539:Permeability
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen