Numerical Simulation of a Multiscale Cell Motility Model Based on the Kinetic Theory of Active Particles

Abstract

In this work, we deal with a kinetic model of cell movement that takes into consideration the structure of the extracellular matrix, considering cell membrane reactions, haptotaxis, and chemotaxis, which plays a key role in a number of biological processes such as wound healing and tumor cell invasion. The modeling is performed at a microscopic scale, and then, a scaling limit is performed to derive the macroscopic model. We run some selected numerical experiments aimed at understanding cell movement and adhesion under certain documented situations, and we measure the alignment of the cells and compare it with the pathways determined by the extracellular matrix by introducing new alignment operators.

In this work, we deal with a kinetic model of cell movement that takes into consideration the structure of the extracellular matrix, considering cell membrane reactions, haptotaxis, and chemotaxis, which plays a key role in a number of biological processes such as wound healing and tumor cell invasion. The modeling is performed at a microscopic scale, and then, a scaling limit is performed to derive the macroscopic model. We run some selected numerical experiments aimed at understanding cell movement and adhesion under certain documented situations, and we measure the alignment of the cells and compare it with the pathways determined by the extracellular matrix by introducing new alignment operators.