Physics and mathematics help to understand the growth of new blood vessels

When new organs are formed during embryonic development, when a wound heals or during an inflammatory reaction, new blood vessels are formed from existing ones. The new vessels supply oxygen and nutrients to the cells, thus ensuring their survival. This process, known as angiogenesis, also occurs in the early stages or progression of more than 50 diseases, including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes. In fact, in many cases, angiogenesis is a fundamental step in the transition from benign tumors to malignant situations. Understanding the process and developing drugs that inhibit angiogenesis have therefore become important areas of research and therapy in oncology.    

Now, a team of researchers from the University of Coimbra and the University of Granada (Spain) have used physics and mathematics to explain the mechanism by which cells in nascent vessels move, proliferate and reorganize. Their results pave the way for a new approach to blocking the growth of new blood vessels, using changes in the physical properties of cells and tissues.

By simulating the growth of new blood vessels under different physical conditions (for example, rigidity of the surrounding environment) and chemical conditions (concentration of the VEGF protein, which stimulates angiogenesis), the researchers concluded that in nascent vessels, the cell at the top creates a tension that spreads to the cells at the rear. This tension creates a force or empty space behind the top cell, triggering the proliferation of new cells. These cells occupy the space behind the top cell, the tension decreases, and the process begins again.

Rui Travasso, a researcher from the Physics department at the University of Coimbra, who coordinated the study, highlights the multidisciplinary nature of the team, made up of physicists, biomedical engineers, doctors and biologists, "This computer model was developed from experiments carried out by groups from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Coimbra, and demonstrated for the first time how the proliferation of the cells that make up blood vessels must depend on the mechanical stress to which the new vessel is subjected during its growth, and also on the concentration of VEGF, to ensure the functionality of the new vessels."

The study was published in the open access scientific journal PLoS Computational Biologyand was chosen for the cover of the issue.

(Image credit: University of Coimbra)