Tissue failure propagation as mediated by circulatory flow

TL;DR

This paper investigates how cell failure propagates through tissues influenced by circulatory flow, combining experimental and theoretical approaches to understand the cascade of micro-level failures to macro-level tissue failure.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model of tissue failure propagation mediated by circulatory flow, integrating diffusion, flow, and cell cooperation mechanisms.

Findings

Failure propagates as a front parallel to flow direction

Circulatory flow accelerates tissue failure

Interdependence network influences failure dynamics

Abstract

Aging is driven by subcellular processes that are relatively well-understood. However the qualitative mechanisms and quantitative dynamics of how these micro-level failures cascade to a macro-level catastrophe in a tissue or organs remain largely unexplored. Here we experimentally and theoretically study how cell failure propagates in a synthetic tissue in the presence of advective flow. We argue that cells secrete cooperative factors, thereby forming a network of interdependence governed by diffusion and flow, which fails with a propagating front parallel to advective circulation.