The European Physical Journal Applied Physics

Table of Contents - April 2005 - Volume 30, Issue 01  

Physics of Biological Systems

Influence of the medium rigidity on the growth of multicellular tumor spheroids

M. Griffaa1a2, M. Scalerandia1a2 and C. Camagnaa1

INFM - Dept. of Physics, Polytechnic of Torino, C.so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy

LIMA Bioinformatics Center, Bioindustry Park of Canavese, Via Ribes 5, 10010 Colleretto Giacosa, TO, Italy

Abstract

The physical interactions of a growing tumor mass with the host tissue (boundary conditions) play an important role in the dynamics of the tumor and their comprehension is essential for designing new therapeutic tools and methods against cancer. Starting from experiments and biological information, we focus here on the analysis of the effects of the coupling between the host's mechanical properties and some relevant cellular processes involved in the growth of multicellular tumor spheroids. The physical-mathematical model proposed here to describe such a coupling and the respective numerical simulations, after validation through a quantitative comparison with experimental data, will be applied to support biological hypotheses previously formulated and to propose new themes of investigation.

(Received April 20 2004)

(Revised August 16 2004)

(Accepted October 7 2004)

(Online publication January 28 2005)

PACS:

  • 87.17.Aa – Cellular structure and processes: theory and modeling; computer simulation;
  • 87.18.Bb – Multicellular phenomena: computer simulation;
  • 87.18.Hf – Multicellular phenomena: spatiotemporal pattern formation in cellular populations

michele.griffa@polito.it marco.scalerandi@infm.polito.it