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Review
. 2016 Jan 11:3:206.
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2015.00206. eCollection 2015.

Adult Stem Cell Therapies for Wound Healing: Biomaterials and Computational Models

Daniele Tartarini  1 , Elisa Mele  2
Affiliations
Review

Adult Stem Cell Therapies for Wound Healing: Biomaterials and Computational Models

Daniele Tartarini et al. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. .

Abstract

The increased incidence of diabetes and tumors, associated with global demographic issues (aging and life styles), has pointed out the importance to develop new strategies for the effective management of skin wounds. Individuals affected by these diseases are in fact highly exposed to the risk of delayed healing of the injured tissue that typically leads to a pathological inflammatory state and consequently to chronic wounds. Therapies based on stem cells (SCs) have been proposed for the treatment of these wounds, thanks to the ability of SCs to self-renew and specifically differentiate in response to the target bimolecular environment. Here, we discuss how advanced biomedical devices can be developed by combining SCs with properly engineered biomaterials and computational models. Examples include composite skin substitutes and bioactive dressings with controlled porosity and surface topography for controlling the infiltration and differentiation of the cells. In this scenario, mathematical frameworks for the simulation of cell population growth can provide support for the design of bioconstructs, reducing the need of expensive, time-consuming, and ethically controversial animal experimentation.

Keywords: Chaste; FLAME; adipose stem cells; cell-based modeling approaches; mesenchymal stem cells; wound healing.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of cell population in discrete models, where cells are represented in pink with nucleus in red. (A) On-lattice approach: squared 2D lattice where each lattice element contains one single cell. At the top right, void locations are free to be occupied by daughter cells. (B) Cellular Potts model: squared lattice where each cell occupies several lattice elements. Cells are represented with different colors. (C) Compartmental model 2D: similar to squared lattice but having several cells per lattice element. (D) Off-lattice agent-based approach in 3D: cells are represented by spheres and are not constrained in a lattice. (E) Off-lattice vertex-based 2D: cell surface delimited by polyhedral vertices of a Voronoi tessellation.
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