Biofluid Mechanics / Biofluids
Pooya Abdi; Bahman Vahidi
Volume 17, Issue 1 , May 2023, , Pages 41-50
Abstract
Topography of extracellular matrix plays a major role in many biological events including tissue healing, morphogenesis and growth. It is known that matrix constitution and mechanical properties are deciding factors in governing the fate of its inhabitant cells. Besides the direct mechanical cues, matrices ...
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Topography of extracellular matrix plays a major role in many biological events including tissue healing, morphogenesis and growth. It is known that matrix constitution and mechanical properties are deciding factors in governing the fate of its inhabitant cells. Besides the direct mechanical cues, matrices also facilitate the release and uptake of certain chemicals and participate in cell-cell and cell-ECM crosstalk. Mechanical strains in the matrix are proved to direct endothelial cell migration and elongation leading to angiogenesis, and there is a consensus that matrix stiffness, fiber density and fiber orientation can enhance angiogenesis in the preferred direction of stiffness gradient. In this study, we specifically investigated the role of topography in guidance of endothelial self-reorganization prompted by the effect of fluid flow hindrance and facilitation in certain directions. We adopted our previous model of fluid flow guided angiogenesis for cellular responses. Lattice Boltzmann model of fluid flow was adopted and modified to study the effect of unidirectional and randomly oriented fibers. To study the effect of fiber orientation, we customized a previously proposed model of porosity in lattice Boltzmann to suit this purpose. This model could reproduce the effects of fiber orientations in matrix on endothelial migration and vasculogenesis. Simulations showed better confluency of formed lumens when prescribed flow is in the direction of fiber orientation. These results can have further implications in understanding endothelial complications in certain diseases as well as in tumor angiogenesis and metastasis.
Tissue Engineering
Sara Zadegan; Bahman Vahidi; Nooshin Haghighipour
Volume 16, Issue 3 , December 2022, , Pages 289-299
Abstract
Repairing osteochondral defects (OCD) remains a formidable challenge due to the high complexity of native osteochondral tissue and the limited self-repair capability of cartilage. In this regard, the development of osteochondral tissue engineering with scaffolds seeded with stem cells along with mechanical ...
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Repairing osteochondral defects (OCD) remains a formidable challenge due to the high complexity of native osteochondral tissue and the limited self-repair capability of cartilage. In this regard, the development of osteochondral tissue engineering with scaffolds seeded with stem cells along with mechanical stimulation has been considered by the researchers as a new proposed technique for the repair of this tissue. In this study, at first we fabricated an integrated and biomimetic trilayered Silk Fibroin (SF) scaffold containing SF nano fibers in each layer. Then fluid wall shear stress in different areas of the scaffold was predicted in dynamic cell culture condition under the inlet velocity of 0.4 ml/min in a perfusion bioreactor using finite elements and fluid-structure interactions methods. Finally, using the simulation results, osteogenesis and chondrogenesis of rabbit adipose derived stem cells (RADSCs) were analyzed. The results showed that this novel osteochondral graft has a seamlessly integrated layer structure and a high degree of pore interconnectivity. The average size of the pores in the bone layer, middle layer, and cartilage were 76, 152, and 102 microns, respectively. In addition, this biomimetic scaffold presented compressive moduli of 0.4 MPa and uitimate tensile strength of 10 MPa in the wet state. Also, based on the simulation analyses, the shear stress distribution is more uniform if the bone layer is exposed to the fluid inlet path which facilitates bone differentiation. Good adhesion and infiltration of cells were observed after 14 days dynamic culture. The results of expression analysis of differentiated genes in bone and cartilage layer containing RADSc after 21 days of culture under static and dynamic conditions showed that perfusion flow significantly upregulated the expression of bone and cartilage genes in the respective layers and downregulated the hypertrophy gene expression in intermediate layer of scaffold.
Biomimetics
Yasaman Amiri,; Bahman Vahidi
Volume 15, Issue 2 , August 2021, , Pages 99-110
Abstract
Microneedles are a type of micron-sized needle that is the third most widely used delivery system after oral and injectable drug delivery, used in a variety of fields including drug release and rejuvenation. Optimizing the geometry of microneedles to reduce pain and inflammation has been important in ...
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Microneedles are a type of micron-sized needle that is the third most widely used delivery system after oral and injectable drug delivery, used in a variety of fields including drug release and rejuvenation. Optimizing the geometry of microneedles to reduce pain and inflammation has been important in recent years. Due to the high cost of microneedle fabrication, numerical simulation of microneedle penetration into the skin can be useful to evaluate the microneedle strength as well as its effect on the skin during penetration. In this study, first a new simulation method in Abaqus software with explicit method using cohesive elements to investigate the penetration of microneedles in the skin of the human forearm was presented. The skin was considered as Ogden and bilayer hyperelastic models. The microneedle was considered as a rigid body and a constant velocity of 0.6 mm/s was applied to it .The microneedle with bulk with bio-inspired titles was examined and its important parameters such as height, sharpness and bulk angle were evaluated. Finally, some proposed models of microneedles with longitudinal grooves are presented to increase the concentration of stress on the skin and prevent friction. A comparison of the designed microneedle with the barbless microneedle shows that the barbed microneedle concentrates more than twice as much stress on the skin, but reduces the penetration force by as much as 15%, making it easier to penetrate the skin. The results show that the reduction longitudinal grooves increase the tension created in the skin by about 10%, but have little effect on the penetrating force on the skin.
Biofluid Mechanics / Biofluids
Milad Mahdinezhad Asiyabi; Bahman Vahidi
Volume 14, Issue 4 , February 2021, , Pages 345-355
Abstract
It is possible to replace or repair damaged tissue with regenerative medicine. Most tissues in the body rely on blood vessels to supply oxygen and nutrients to individual cells. New blood vessels are essential to grow tissue longer than 100-200 mm due to limited oxygen delivery; This restriction also ...
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It is possible to replace or repair damaged tissue with regenerative medicine. Most tissues in the body rely on blood vessels to supply oxygen and nutrients to individual cells. New blood vessels are essential to grow tissue longer than 100-200 mm due to limited oxygen delivery; This restriction also applies to engineered tissues. Therefore, one of the prerequisites for tissue survival and growth is the presence of vasculature. One way to overcome this limitation is to use microfluidic channels that are created by planting a layer of endothelial cells on the channel wall and applying in vitro flow. In this study, the channels were placed inside a type 1 collagen scaffold with 81% porosity, and a drainage channel was considered for the scaffold with lymphatic function. The geometry of the perfusion channel was based on Murray’s law. The effect of parameters such as drainage channel radius, perfusion channel pressure difference, scaffold hydraulic conductivity, and vascular hydraulic conductivity on transmural pressure and shear stress was investigated. The effect of the bifurcation angle on shear stress was also studied. The finite element method was used to solve the problem. In the simulation on a vessel with a diameter of 100 mm, the maximum interstitial velocity was 50E-9 m/s, the maximum interstitial pressure was 1.34E+3 Pa, and the minimum transmural pressure was 1.49E+3 Pa. The average shear stress on the vessel walls was 10 dyn/cm2. It was noted that reducing the pressure at the drainage channel outlet, the internal insulation of the scaffold from the pressure difference within the perfusion channel, reducing the vascular hydraulic conductivity, increasing the scaffold hydraulic conductivity, and increasing the radius of the drainage channel will create and maintain positive transmural pressure. The results of this study can be used in creating implantable tissue consisting of vascular network and drainage.
Biofluid Mechanics / Biofluids
Mohammad Ahmadi Alashti; Bahman Vahidi; Mahtab Ebad
Volume 13, Issue 1 , April 2019, , Pages 1-15
Abstract
The large surface area of the lung with its thin air-blood barrier is exposed to particles in the inhaled air. In this condition, if the inhaled pollutant aerosols are toxic, the particle-lung interaction may cause serious hazards and injuries on human’s health. On the otherhand, these interactions ...
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The large surface area of the lung with its thin air-blood barrier is exposed to particles in the inhaled air. In this condition, if the inhaled pollutant aerosols are toxic, the particle-lung interaction may cause serious hazards and injuries on human’s health. On the otherhand, these interactions are also used for drug delivery to human’s body. In either case, an accurate estimation of dose and sites of deposition in the respiratory tract is fundamental for understanding mechanobiology of these deseases. Obtaining in vivo data of particle transportation in the human lung experimentally is often difficult. But, computational fluid-particle dynamics (CFPD) has provided the possibility to gain aerosol transportion data in realistic airway geometries. Aerosols deposition in the human lung mainly occurs due to combination of inertial impaction, gravitational sedimentation and diffusion. For particles with aerodynamic size of 0.5 to 5 micron and in inhalation state of lung, the main mechanisms of particle deposition in distal parts of human’s respiratory system are sedimentation, due to gravity and convective transfer due to wall movement. In this study, deposition of particles in distal part of human respiratory system, specifically 18th generation, has been modeled for two gravity conditions, normal and absent gravity, by assuming isotropic displacements on the walls and with the rate of 1 (mg/sec) for particle input. By analyzing the results, it was determined that the amount of particle deposition in distal airways reduces a great amount by omitting the effect of gravitational force because, particles smaller than 5 micron can penetrate into that airways. Particles with the diameter of 5 micron deposit under the effect of inertial impact, whereas this mechanism occurs mostly in airways with large and medium diameters and also, by sedimentation which occurs in the distal lung.
Zahra Mollahoseini; Bahman Vahidi
Volume 12, Issue 2 , September 2018, , Pages 125-136
Abstract
For patients with chronic pulmonary disease, artificial lungs to which right ventricular pumps blood flow is considered as a bridge to lung transplantation. The performance of this device is measured by several criteria, including the efficiency of the device in gas exchange, non-damage to blood cells ...
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For patients with chronic pulmonary disease, artificial lungs to which right ventricular pumps blood flow is considered as a bridge to lung transplantation. The performance of this device is measured by several criteria, including the efficiency of the device in gas exchange, non-damage to blood cells and low impedance compared to normal lung. In this study, the non-Newtonian blood flow around arrays of hollow fibers, as a model of fiber bundles in artificial lungs, was numerically investigated by finite volume. Two types of square and diagonal arrangements for fibers were considered to examine the effect of arrangement, besides the inlet velocity effect on the flow distribution, shear stress and the exchanged oxygen concentration between the surface of the fibers and the blood stream. It was observed that the flow velocity and shear stress in the diagonal arrangement were far more than the square arrangement that for the maximum velocity (10/87 cm/s), the shear stress on the fibers in the diagonal arrangement was about 3.5 times that of the square arrangement. Also, there was a significant difference between the results of this analysis and the results of other studies in which oxygen exchange was ignored, which illustrates the importance of gas exchange modeling. As a measure of the efficiency of the device, from the viewpoint of gas exchange, the mass flow rate of oxygen was investigated in the output of the domain. As a result, the diagonal arrangement is much more efficient in oxygen exchange. However, there was a higher pressure drop across the fibers, for a diagonal arrangement, in comparison with the square arrangement. The results of this simulation can be a good starting point for optimal artificial lung design and can be effective in optimizing the design of clinical trials.
Cell Biomechanics / Cell Mechanics / Mechanobiology
sajad ghazavi; Bahman Vahidi
Volume 10, Issue 3 , October 2016, , Pages 257-266
Abstract
Due to the importance of the brain and neurons, a vast area of research has been conducted in this field. However, due to the complexity of the neural behavior, each study investigated the functionality of neurons from one perspective such as electrophysiological, chemical, or mechanical perspective. ...
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Due to the importance of the brain and neurons, a vast area of research has been conducted in this field. However, due to the complexity of the neural behavior, each study investigated the functionality of neurons from one perspective such as electrophysiological, chemical, or mechanical perspective. In spite of the large number of research conducted on the brain injury topic, there is no study investigating the interaction of the mechanical and electrical characteristics of the neurons and its effect on the cell functionality. Understating the interaction between the mechanical and electrical properties of a neuron will have a substantial effect on treating neurological diseases such as traumatic brain injury and improving treatment methods such as ultrasound. As a result, there is a vital need to simulate the effect of mechanical forces on the electrophysiological behavior of a neuron. This study is one of the few attempts to achieve this goal by taking into account the mechanosensitivity of ion channels which affects the action potentials. Our proposed comprehensive model is based on power law equation (fractional dashpot) for mechanical modeling, Hodgkin Huxley (HH) equation for electrophysiological model and recent experiments for combination of these two equations. Based on the model, the calculated strain from the power law equation affects the activation and inactivation of ion channels. By changing the activation and inactivation variable in the HH equation, we can evaluate the effect of strain and mechanical stimulation on neural function. The results reveal neuron functions’ deficiency during neuron mechanical damage. As a result, action potential signal’s amplitude reduces. This reduction in amplitude of the action potential may be reversible or irreversible based on the amount of damage (plastic deformation).
Fluid-Structure Interaction in Biological Media / FSI
Mahdi Moradkhani; Bahman Vahidi
Volume 9, Issue 2 , July 2015, , Pages 179-190
Abstract
Investigating the mechanical stimuli on stem cells under in vitro and in vivo conditions is a very important topic to achieve an ability tocontrol the cellular responses like growth, proliferation and differentiation. Many investigations carried out about biomechanical factors involved in this phenomenon ...
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Investigating the mechanical stimuli on stem cells under in vitro and in vivo conditions is a very important topic to achieve an ability tocontrol the cellular responses like growth, proliferation and differentiation. Many investigations carried out about biomechanical factors involved in this phenomenon and nowadays, it is proved that some factors like as cell morphology, subcellular elements configuration, scaffold architecture, substrate stiffness and mechanical stimulation via substrate displacement or fluid flow, have got an important effecton cellular responses. In this study, we have tried to evaluate the responses of a stem cell to the stiffness and thickness of the substrate by the means of finite element method. For this purpose, we have used collagen-based scaffolds as the artificial ECM and a cell culture in a bioreactor with fluid flow was simulated. By use of fluid-structure interaction method and solving the equations in two-way coupling scheme, the results show that the increase in thickness and stiffness of the substrate will result in15 percent change in cell-substrate stresses, respectively. Also, it was seen that the change of substrate stiffness only in the range of 0.1-100 KPa could affect the cell response to an external stimulation. These results, along with other similar investigations, could be used as an instructor by the researchers to optimize the stem cell’s microenvironment in vitro, and finally get the most out of their stem cell related Investigations.
Tissue Engineering
Zakieh Alihemmati; Bahman Vahidi; Nooshin Haghighipour
Volume 8, Issue 2 , June 2014, , Pages 135-149
Abstract
Body cells, including mesenchymal stem cells are subject to a lot of mechanical forces. The type and magnitude of these forces are different in different physiological and pathological conditions. They cause a wide variety of cell responses and are able to change metabolisms and functions of the cell. ...
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Body cells, including mesenchymal stem cells are subject to a lot of mechanical forces. The type and magnitude of these forces are different in different physiological and pathological conditions. They cause a wide variety of cell responses and are able to change metabolisms and functions of the cell. Analysis of stem cell response to mechanical stimulation is very important in recognizing healthy and diseased condition of tissues and cells. Differentiation potential of mesenchymal stem cells to specialized cells makes them important cell sources in tissue engineering. In this study, atomic force microscopy and finite element method and used mechanical effects on a stem cellaresimulated which includes cell behavior due to strain andstress distributions in internal components of the cell. In this study, the ADINA software used to simulate mechanical behavior of the cell components (cell membrane, cytoplasm and nucleus) under a compressiveload. Results indicate mechanical response of stem cells in the body through which they can differentiate into bone cells and cartilage under compressive loads in the physiological range. This study has some considerable innovations as compared with the similar studies in the literature which is because of the kind of cells has been used (adipose-derived stem cells) as well as and also using precise material models for cell components based on the data extracted from laboratory tests for mechanical properties of the cell. Furthermore, this study can be considered as an important initial step for future studies on different patho-cells and analyzing their responses to mechanical loading using a similar method of this study to find new diagnostic methods. Also, it can be used to deepen pathological studies of the cells and the tissues.
Biomimetics
Behzad Seyfi; Hosein Mansourinejad; Bahman Vahidi; Nasser Fatouraee
Volume 6, Issue 3 , June 2012, , Pages 169-175
Abstract
Peristaltic flow is one of the important mechanisms of fluid transmission. In addition to the divers engineering applications, this mechanism plays an important role in biological organs such as digestion system and urine excretion. In this paper, urine bolus transportation in ureter has been investigated ...
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Peristaltic flow is one of the important mechanisms of fluid transmission. In addition to the divers engineering applications, this mechanism plays an important role in biological organs such as digestion system and urine excretion. In this paper, urine bolus transportation in ureter has been investigated experimentally using a peristaltic flow simulator apparatus. Some of the features of this apparatus worth mentioning are its ability to use it to investigate the influence of some important parameters in peristaltic flow, such as the effect of pressure difference between the kidney and the bladder on the quantity of discharge and reflux rates, effect of the mean velocity of bolus transport on discharge rate, existence of fluid film and its effect on bolus discharge rate, and effect of fluid bolus length on reflux rate. Then we compare the obtained results with the similar theoretical studies. It was observed that an increase in the pressure difference between inlet and outlet decreases the ratio of reflux to initial volume of the bolus, and it increases the discharge rate. Moreover, the quantities of reflux and discharge rate decrease by decreasing the bolus transport velocity. It was also observed that the thickness of the fluid film has an inverse relation with respect to the discharge rate and with increasing the bolus length reflux is increasing.
Fluid-Structure Interaction in Biological Media / FSI
Bahman Vahidi; Nasser Fatouraee
Volume 2, Issue 4 , June 2008, , Pages 285-296
Abstract
Arterial embolism is one of the major killers of the people who have heart diseases. In cerebral arteries, the danger of embolism is that the ruptured particles are carried into the brain, provoking neurological symptoms or a stroke. In this research, for the first time, we have presented a numerical ...
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Arterial embolism is one of the major killers of the people who have heart diseases. In cerebral arteries, the danger of embolism is that the ruptured particles are carried into the brain, provoking neurological symptoms or a stroke. In this research, for the first time, we have presented a numerical model to study the complete blockage of the human common carotid artery resulted from the physical motion of a blood clot bulk with spherical geometry in it. In the numerical model, a transient flow was assumed in an axisymmetric finite length tube. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations were used as the governing equations for the fluid and a linear elastic model was utilized for the blood clot bulk. In order to model the contact conditions between the blood clot and arterial wall, an axisymmetric rigid contact model was used. The arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation (ALE) was applied to analyze the solid large displacements inside fluid flow. The results indicated that during contact between stenosis and the clot, separation and reattachment regions were occurred on the stenosis extensively which are susceptible to thrombosis onset and growth. By abruption of the clot from the arterial wall during its passage through the stenosis, an extensive recirculation zone occurred downstream of the stenosis and beneath the moving clot bulk. Analysis of the clot motion and deformation have showed that when the clot passed the stenosis completely, the areas near the clot peak had a large tendency to expand which indicated the propensity of these areas to disperse.
Fluid-Structure Interaction in Biological Media / FSI
Bahman Vahidi; Nasser Fatouraee; Ali Imanparast
Volume 2, Issue 1 , June 2008, , Pages 29-37
Abstract
Ureter reflux is one of the prevalent factors that causes pyelonefrit and sistit syndromes. Dilatation of ureter, renal pelves and calyx are detectable with reflux. In this paper, in order to analyze this phenomenon, an axisymmetric model was introduced. We utilized a rigid body, which is in contact ...
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Ureter reflux is one of the prevalent factors that causes pyelonefrit and sistit syndromes. Dilatation of ureter, renal pelves and calyx are detectable with reflux. In this paper, in order to analyze this phenomenon, an axisymmetric model was introduced. We utilized a rigid body, which is in contact with the outer ureter wall to model ureter contraction. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved for the fluid and a linear elastic model is used for ureter wall structure. The finite element equations for both the structure and the fluid were solved by the Newton-Raphson iterative method. The effect of ureter wall elasticity, pressure difference between the ureter inlet and outlet and the effect of the average velocity of peristaltic wave along the length of the ureter on the ureter outlet flow rate were analyzed. Moreover, the effect of the number of contraction waves on the pressure and flow relations in the ureter was analyzed. Increase in the number of contraction waves reduced the flow passing through the ureter. The results of investigating about the contraction wave velocity variations indicated that if average velocity the contraction wave was lower than a limited magnitude, its existence did not have any considerable effect on the ureter outlet flow rate. Finally improper function of urinary tubes junctions results in the passage of a part of back flow even in the case of low velocity beginning of the contraction wave.
