Mathematical Differentiation between Two Types of Wound Healing: Regenerative Repair versus Repair Resulting in Scar

Brigham Young University, Provo UT

Investigators

Abstract

The proposed project is to develop a new mathematical model and use an in vitro model to investigate cell-collagen interactions. Dr. Dallon will study and work with Professor H. Paul Ehrlich in the Department of Surgery at Penn State College of Medicine where the mathematical model will be developed and the experiments will be performed. The study will start by focusing on the current debate over what mechanism leads to wound contraction. The widely believed hypothesis is that myofibroblast linked to one another and normal tissue through sustained contraction reduce the wound size. The challenging hypothesis maintains that the elongated fibroblasts generate tractional forces by rapid myosin ATPase which compact the collagen fibrils leading to the reduction in size of the granulation tissue. The mathematical model will incorporate both biochemical and mechanical cell-collagen interactions by amalgamating ideas from existing models. Differential equations will be used to model the biochemical reactions and the framework of a force based cell-cell interaction model will be used to formulate the mechanical cell-collagen interactions. For the experimental approach an in vitro model, the contraction of the fibroblast populated collagen lattice (FPCL) will be used to model fibroblast-collagen interactions. The two hypotheses of the mechanism leading to wound contraction can be studied using the free-floating (FF)-FPCL contraction model which studies the fibroblast cell type and collagen interactions and the attached-delayed-released (ADR)-FPCL which studies the myofibroblast cell type and collagen interactions. This IGMS project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).