Journal article
A continuum model for the development of tissue-engineered cartilage around a chondrocyte
Abbey J Trewenack, Colin P Please, Kerry A Landman
MATHEMATICAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY-A JOURNAL OF THE IMA | OXFORD UNIV PRESS | Published : 2009
Abstract
The limited ability of cartilage to repair when damaged has led to the investigation of tissue engineering as a method for reconstructing cartilage. We propose a continuum multispecies model for the development of cartilage around a single chondrocyte. As in healthy cartilage, the model predicts a balance between synthesis, transport, binding and decay of matrix components. Two mechanisms are investigated for the transport of soluble matrix components: diffusion and advection, caused by displacement of the scaffold medium. Numerical results indicate that a parameter defined by the ratio of the flux of soluble components out of the chondrocyte and its diffusive flux determines which of these ..
View full abstractGrants
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC). AJT has the support of an Australian Postgraduate Award and is grateful for support and travel funding from the Particulate Fluids Processing Centre, an ARC Special Research Centre, as well as the University of Melbourne and the University of Southampton. KAL is an ARC Professorial Fellow. This work was motivated by a problem presented by Dr Jos Malda, of the University of Utrecht, at the Mathematics in Medicine Study Group held at the University of Southampton in September 2007. The authors wish to thank Dr Bram Sengers and Dr Ben Macarthur, from the Bone and Joint Research Group at Southampton General Hospital, for many helpful discussions.