论文标题
实体球体的最小形态弹性模型:教程
Minimal Morphoelastic Models of Solid Tumour Spheroids: A Tutorial
论文作者
论文摘要
肿瘤球体一直是各种数学模型的重点,从格林斯潘(Greenspan)的1970年代经典研究到基于当代药物的模型。在调节球体生长的许多因素中,机械效应在理论上还是在实验上可能是研究最少的一些因素,尽管实验探究已经确定了它们对肿瘤生长动力学的重要性。在本教程中,我们制定了数学模型的层次结构,以增加复杂性,以探索力学在球体生长中的作用,同时始终寻求保持理想的简单性和分析性障碍。从结合固体力学和生长的形态弹性理论开始,我们依次完善了我们的假设,以开发出一种有点最小的机械调节球体生长模型,该模型没有许多非物理和不良行为。通过这样做,我们将看到对简单模型的迭代如何提供严格的紧急行为保证,这些行为通常被现有,更复杂的建模方法所排除。也许令人惊讶的是,我们还证明了本教程中考虑的最终模型与经典的实验结果非常有利,这突出了简单模型提供机械洞察力的潜力,同时也是数学示例。
Tumour spheroids have been the focus of a variety of mathematical models, ranging from Greenspan's classical study of the 1970s through to contemporary agent-based models. Of the many factors that regulate spheroid growth, mechanical effects are perhaps some of the least studied, both theoretically and experimentally, though experimental enquiry has established their significance to tumour growth dynamics. In this tutorial, we formulate a hierarchy of mathematical models of increasing complexity to explore the role of mechanics in spheroid growth, all the while seeking to retain desirable simplicity and analytical tractability. Beginning with the theory of morphoelasticity, which combines solid mechanics and growth, we successively refine our assumptions to develop a somewhat minimal model of mechanically regulated spheroid growth that is free from many unphysical and undesirable behaviours. In doing so, we will see how iterating upon simple models can provide rigorous guarantees of emergent behaviour, which are often precluded by existing, more complex modelling approaches. Perhaps surprisingly, we also demonstrate that the final model considered in this tutorial agrees favourably with classical experimental results, highlighting the potential for simple models to provide mechanistic insight whilst also serving as mathematical examples.