Torres Rojas Aimee M, Lorente Sylvie, Hautefeuille Mathieu, Sanchez-Cedillo Aczel
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, United States.
Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
Front Physiol. 2021 Nov 16;12:733165. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.733165. eCollection 2021.
The liver plays a key role in the metabolic homeostasis of the whole organism. To carry out its functions, it is endowed with a peculiar circulatory system, made of three main dendritic flow structures and lobules. Understanding the vascular anatomy of the liver is clinically relevant since various liver pathologies are related to vascular disorders. Here, we develop a novel liver circulation model with a deterministic architecture based on the constructal law of design over the entire scale range (from macrocirculation to microcirculation). In this framework, the liver vascular structure is a combination of superimposed tree-shaped networks and porous system, where the main geometrical features of the dendritic fluid networks and the permeability of the porous medium, are defined from the constructal viewpoint. With this model, we are able to emulate physiological scenarios and to predict changes in blood pressure and flow rates throughout the hepatic vasculature due to resection or thrombosis in certain portions of the organ, simulated as deliberate blockages in the blood supply to these sections. This work sheds light on the critical impact of the vascular network on mechanics-related processes occurring in hepatic diseases, healing and regeneration that involve blood flow redistribution and are at the core of liver resilience.
肝脏在整个机体的代谢稳态中发挥着关键作用。为了执行其功能，它拥有一个特殊的循环系统，由三个主要的树枝状血流结构和小叶组成。了解肝脏的血管解剖结构在临床上具有重要意义，因为各种肝脏疾病都与血管紊乱有关。在此，我们基于设计的构造法则，在整个尺度范围（从大循环到微循环）内开发了一种具有确定性结构的新型肝脏循环模型。在此框架下，肝脏血管结构是叠加的树形网络和多孔系统的组合，其中树枝状流体网络的主要几何特征和多孔介质的渗透率是从构造角度定义的。利用这个模型，我们能够模拟生理场景，并预测由于器官某些部分的切除或血栓形成（模拟为对这些区域血液供应的故意阻塞）而导致的整个肝血管系统血压和流速的变化。这项工作揭示了血管网络对肝脏疾病、愈合和再生中发生的与力学相关过程的关键影响，这些过程涉及血流重新分布，并且是肝脏恢复力的核心。
