Computational study of the self-assembly of two different cell populations in contact with a biomaterial.

The organisation of a heterotypic multicellular system is intensely studied in developmental biology, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.To address this problem, we have created a computational model of a biological system made of two cell populations of various cohesivities, and simulated its evolution on the surface of biomaterials of different adhesivities. To this end, it was necessary to extend our SIMMMC application with algorithms that treat two cell types. We have observed, in accordance with experiments that, depending on the strength of cell-substrate adhesion, different structures emerge by the self-assembly of the two cell populations. The agreement with experimental results validates the extended version of the SIMMMC application, suggesting that this tool might offer useful insights for tissue engineers.