A discrete in continuous mathematical model of cardiac progenitor cells formation and growth as spheroid clusters (Cardiospheres)

TL;DR

This paper introduces a hybrid discrete-continuous mathematical model for simulating the growth and formation of cardiac progenitor cell clusters, called Cardiospheres, incorporating cellular dynamics, proliferation, differentiation, and chemical signaling.

Contribution

It presents a novel hybrid modeling approach that combines discrete cellular behavior with continuous molecular processes to simulate Cardiosphere formation.

Findings

Model accurately reproduces in vitro Cardiosphere structures

Simulations demonstrate the influence of chemical signals on cell behavior

Good agreement between numerical results and experimental data

Abstract

We propose a discrete in continuous mathematical model describing the in vitro growth process of biophsy-derived mammalian cardiac progenitor cells growing as clusters in the form of spheres (Cardiospheres). The approach is hybrid: discrete at cellular scale and continuous at molecular level. In the present model cells are subject to the self-organizing collective dynamics mechanism and, additionally, they can proliferate and differentiate, also depending on stochastic processes. The two latter processes are triggered and regulated by chemical signals present in the environment. Numerical simulations show the structure and the development of the clustered progenitors and are in a good agreement with the results obtained from in vitro experiments.