School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Int J Numer Method Biomed Eng. 2019 Jan;35(1):e3155. doi: 10.1002/cnm.3155. Epub 2018 Oct 22.
Understanding the healing and remodelling processes induced by myocardial infarction (MI) of the heart is important, and the mechanical properties of the myocardium post-MI can be indicative for effective treatments aimed at avoiding eventual heart failure. MI remodelling is a multiscale feedback process between the mechanical loading and cellular adaptation. In this paper, we use an agent-based model to describe collagen remodelling by fibroblasts regulated by chemical and mechanical cues after acute MI, and upscale into a finite element 3D left ventricular model. We model the dispersed collagen fibre structure using the angular integration method and have incorporated a collagen fibre tension-compression switch in the left ventricle (LV) model. This enables us to study the scar healing (collagen deposition, degradation, and reorientation) of a rat heart post-MI. Our results, in terms of collagen accumulation and alignment, compare well with published experimental data. In addition, we show that different shapes of the MI region can affect the collagen remodelling, and in particular, the mechanical cue plays an important role in the healing process.
了解心肌梗死后心脏的愈合和重塑过程很重要，而心肌梗死后心肌的机械性能可以作为有效治疗的指标，以避免最终发生心力衰竭。心肌梗死后重塑是机械负荷和细胞适应之间的多尺度反馈过程。在本文中，我们使用基于代理的模型来描述心肌梗死后由成纤维细胞调节的胶原重塑，通过化学和机械线索，并将其扩展为有限元 3D 左心室模型。我们使用角积分方法来模拟离散的胶原纤维结构，并在左心室 (LV) 模型中加入了胶原纤维张紧-压缩开关。这使我们能够研究大鼠心肌梗死后的疤痕愈合（胶原沉积、降解和重定向）。我们的结果（胶原的积累和排列）与已发表的实验数据吻合良好。此外，我们还表明，MI 区域的不同形状会影响胶原重塑，特别是机械线索在愈合过程中起着重要作用。
