3D numerical modeling of glioblastoma cells progression in microfluidic devices

Mathematical and computational models provide a powerful framework for understanding complex biological processes such as cancer cell progression. Here, we present a numerical formulation for the simulation of the evolution of glioblastoma (GBM) cancer cells in microfluidic devices which are commonl...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Sala Lardies, Esther, Sarrate Ramos, Josep|||0000-0003-0182-934X, Pérez Aliacar, Marina, Ayensa Jiménez, Jacobo, Doblaré Castellano, Manuel, Parés Mariné, Núria|||0000-0002-2914-9904
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2026
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositório:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:upcommonspor::0be86ec787bab7d7fdf748150302aa46
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/460938
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.finel.2026.104551
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Glioblastoma (GBM)
High-order continuous Galerkin
High-order diagonally implicit Runge–Kutta
Newton method
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Matemàtiques i estadística::Anàlisi numèrica::Mètodes numèrics
Descrição
Resumo:Mathematical and computational models provide a powerful framework for understanding complex biological processes such as cancer cell progression. Here, we present a numerical formulation for the simulation of the evolution of glioblastoma (GBM) cancer cells in microfluidic devices which are commonly used to replicate the dynamic changes of the tumor cells in a biomimetic microenvironment. We model this physicochemical and biological complexity with a coupled nonlinear system of transient partial differential equations involving different chemical species and cell phenotypes. In particular, we consider oxygen as the main chemical driver and the concentration of two cell phenotypes: living and dead cells. The system is solved combining a high-order continuous Galerkin finite element formulation in space with a high-order diagonally implicit Runge–Kutta (DIRK) scheme in time. This leads to a coupled nonlinear system for oxygen and living cells at each stage of the DIRK scheme that we solve using the Newton method. The same integration method is used to solve for dead cells at each mesh node. Finally, we present several examples to assess and illustrate the capabilities of the proposed formulation. The results demonstrate that this model is a valuable tool for advancing our understanding of cancer cell progression and for supporting the industrial design of novel devices aimed at testing new hypotheses and guiding experimental research.