Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1870687 Physics of Life Reviews 2016 25 Pages PDF
Abstract

•Physiological and pathological fibrosis.•Biomathematics, bioinformatics, biomechanics and biophysics modeling.•Top-down and bottom-up approaches.•ODE-based models and Agent-based models.•Thermostatted kinetic theory and theory of finite elasticity.

Pathological fibrosis is the result of a failure in the wound healing process. The comprehension and the related modeling of the different mechanisms that trigger fibrosis are a challenge of many researchers that work in the field of medicine and biology. The modern scientific analysis of a phenomenon generally consists of three major approaches: theoretical, experimental, and computational. Different theoretical tools coming from mathematics and physics have been proposed for the modeling of the physiological and pathological fibrosis. However a complete framework is missing and the development of a general theory is required. This review aims at finding a unified approach in the modeling of fibrosis diseases that takes into account the different phenomena occurring at each level: molecular, cellular and tissue. Specifically by means of a critical analysis of the different models that have been proposed in the mathematical, computational and physical biology, from molecular to tissue scales, a multiscale approach is proposed, an approach that has been strongly recommended by top level biologists in the past decades.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Physics and Astronomy Physics and Astronomy (General)
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