Collaborative Research: Modeling the Growth and Adhesion of Auricular Chondrocytes under Controlled

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Collaborative Research Modeling the Growth and
Adhesion of Auricular Chondrocytes under
Controlled Flow Conditions
Department of Mathematics, University of
Houston1, The Texas Heart Institute and the UT
Health Science Center at Houston2,
Baylor College of Medicine3 and Rice University
Suncica Canic1, Roland Glowinski1,
Tsorng-When Pan1, Doreen Rosenstrauch2, Craig
Hartley3 (PIs) DMS-0443826 (UH),
DMS-0443549(THI), DMS-0443563(Baylor)
www.math.uh.edu/canic/NIGMS.html
RESULTS Coronary artery disease causes narrowing
or stenosis of coronary arteries which might lead
to heart attack. Treatment of coronary artery
disease involves inserting a vascular stent into
the diseased artery to keep the artery open
thereby securing blood supply to the heart
muscle. Upon implantation, vascular stents
have been shown to activate inflammatory
responses due to their poor biocompatibility. To
improve biocompatibility of implantable
cardiovascular devices, our group showed that
lining stents with ear cartilage cells called
auricular chondrocytes, might produce a
long-lasting biocompatible device. Chondrocytes
were genetically modified to produce nitric oxide
which is known to have an anti-inflammatory
action. They were shown to exhibit superior
adherance to artificial surfaces such as those of
stents, shown in Figure 2.
METHODS To investigate and optimize coating of
stents by auricular chondrocytes we have been
working on the development of a
fluid-structure-cell interaction algorithm. The
aim is to mathematically and computationally
simulate the growth, adhesion, detachment and
long-term behavior of auricular chondrocytes
under controlled flow conditions. Two algorithms
a fluid-structure interaction algorithm (Figure 3
top) and an algorithm simulating cell deposition
and attachment to artificial surfaces (Figure 3
bottom) have already been developed, and a
comparison with experiment showed good agreement.
Figure 1. Vascular stent and restenosis. (Click
on the picture to run the movie.)
Figure 3 Computational simulationblood
flow-stent interaction (top), cell rolling and
detachment (bottom). (Click on the picture to
run the movies.)
WHY IT MATTERS Heart attack is the single
leading cause of death in the United States.
Design of long-lasting biocompatible stents used
in the treatment of coronary artery disease might
lower the heart attack rates and improve the
health of heart patients.
Figure 2. Stent struts lined with auricular
chondrocytes before expansion of stent (left),
after expansion (right) (Wire filament width is
200 microns).
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Collaborative Research Modeling the Growth and
Adhesion of Auricular Chondrocytes under
Controlled Flow Conditions

• PUBLICATIONS (selected)
• For a complete list of publications please visit
  www.math.uh.edu/canic/NIGMS.html
• S. Canic, J. Tambaca, G. Guidoboni, A. Mikelic,
  C.J. Hartley, D. Rosenstrauch. Modeling
  viscoelastic behavior of arterial walls and their
  interaction with pulsatile blood flow. SIAM J
  Applied Mathematics Vol. 67 (2006).
• R. Glowinski, G. Guidoboni, T-W Pan,
  "Wall-driven incompressible viscous flow in a
  two-dimensional semi-circular cavity", Journal of
  Computational Physics. To appear (2006).
• S. Canic, C.J. Hartley, D. Rosenstrauch, J.
  Tambaca, G. Guidoboni, A. Mikelic. Blood Flow in
  Compliant Arteries An Effective Viscoelastic
  Reduced Model, Numerics and Experimental
  Validation. Annals of Biomedical Engineering. 34
  (2006), pp. 575 592.
• S. Canic, Z. Krajcer, and S. Lapin. Design of
  Optimal Prostheses Using Mathematical Modeling.
  Endovascular Today (Cover Story). (2006) 48-50.
• T.-W. Pan and R. Glowinski, Numerical Simulation
  of Pattern Formation in a Rotating Suspension of
  non-Brownian Settling Particles, in Free and
  Moving Boundaries Analysis, Simulation and
  Control, Glowinski and Zolesio eds., Lecture
  Notes in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 252,
  Taylor Francis/CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2006
  .
• S. Canic, A. Mikelic and J. Tambaca. A
  two-dimensional effective model describing
  fluid-structure interaction in blood flow
  analysis, simulation and experimental validation
  Comptes Rendus Mechanique Acad. Sci. Paris
  333(12) 867-883. (2005).

OUTLOOK Although a first generation
fluid-structure interaction algorithm and a
fluid-cell interaction algorithm have been
developed by our group, the coupling between the
two algorithms is yet to be investigated.
Simultaneously, we have been working on the set
up of the flow loop, shown in Figure 4, for
experimental testing of the vascular stent
dynamics and cell slough off under controlled
(pulsatile) flow conditions. The flow loop will
be used to validate the mathematical and
computational algorithm. Once the computational
algorithm is experimentally validated, it will be
used as a guide to optimal design of coated
stents allowing different stent geometries and
different artificial surfaces.
Figure 4.. Experimental flow-loop set up.
PIs, Collaborators and Students S. Canic, T.-W.
Pan, R. Glowinski (UH), D. Rosenstrauch
(UTMCHTHI), C. Hartley (Baylor) PIs G.
Guidoboni (UH), A. Mikelic (France), J. Tambaca
(Croatia), D. Mirkovic (MD Anderson Cancer
Center), Z. Krajcer (THI), S. Lapin (UH)
Collaborators M. Kosor, T. Kim, J. Hao, T. Wang,
B. Stanley (UH), K. Moncivais, T. Joseph, J.
Gill (Rice) Students.
Received US Congressional Recognition for The
Best Women in Technology Award (Houston
2005) (awarded to PI Canic) SIAM 2004 von Karman
Prize (awarded to Glowinski) Glowinski elected
to the French National Academy of Sciences in
2005
Thanks Mia Mirkovic for help with poster.