Flow-correlated dilution of a regular network leads to a percolating network during tumor induced angiogenesis

TL;DR

This paper models tumor-induced angiogenesis, showing that correlated vessel collapse leads to percolating, fractal-like vascular networks with measurable properties, advancing understanding of tumor vasculature formation.

Contribution

It introduces a stochastic model linking vessel collapse to shear force, revealing how correlation influences network percolation and morphology in tumor vasculature.

Findings

Correlated vessel collapse is essential for percolating network formation.

Tumor vasculature exhibits fractal properties with measurable fractal dimension.

Model predicts variations in microvascular density and blood flow based on parameters.

Abstract

We study a simplified stochastic model for the vascularization of a growing tumor, incorporating the formation of new blood vessels at the tumor periphery as well as their regression in the tumor center. The resulting morphology of the tumor vasculature differs drastically from the original one. We demonstrate that the probabilistic vessel collapse has to be correlated with the blood shear force in order to yield percolating network structures. The resulting tumor vasculature displays fractal properties. Fractal dimension, microvascular density (MVD), blood flow and shear force has been computed for a wide range of parameters.