Multiscale Mechanical Modeling of Skeletal Muscle: A Systemic Review of the Literature

TL;DR

This review discusses multiscale mechanical models of skeletal muscle, highlighting scale transition methods, constitutive laws, and recent trends like multiphysics simulations and experimental data integration across scales.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of existing multiscale models, focusing on scale transition techniques and recent advancements in coupling modeling with experimental data.

Findings

Models explore aging, myopathies, injuries, and contraction mechanisms.

Homogenization and constitutive laws are key in multiscale modeling.

Emerging trends include multiphysics simulations and data coupling.

Abstract

Purpose: From the myofibrils to the whole muscle scale, muscle micro-constituents exhibit passive and active mechanical properties, potentially coupled to electrical, chemical, and thermal properties. Experimental characterization of some of these properties is currently not available for all muscle constituents. Multiscale multiphysics models have recently gained interest as a numerical alternative to investigate the healthy and diseased physiological behavior of the skeletal muscle. Methods: This paper refers to the multiscale mechanical models proposed in the literature to investigate the mechanical properties and behavior of skeletal muscles. More specifically, we focus on the scale transition methods, constitutive laws and experimental data implemented in these models. Results: Using scale transition methods such as homogenization, coupled to appropriate constitutive behavior of the constituents, these models explore the mechanisms of ageing, myopathies, sportive injuries, and muscle contraction. Conclusion: Emerging trends include the development of multiphysics simulations and the coupling of modeling with the acquisition of experimental data at different scales, with increasing focus to little known constituents such as the extracellular matrix and the protein titin.