Modeling Living Cells Within Microfluidic Systems Using Cellular Automata Models

Several computational models, both continuum and discrete, allow for the simulation of collective cell behaviors in connection with challenges linked to disease modeling and understanding. Normally, discrete cell modelling employs quasi-infinite or boundary-less 2D lattices, hence modeling collective cell behaviors in Petri dish-like environments. The advent of lab- and organ-on-a-chip devices proves that the information obtained from 2D cell cultures, upon Petri dishes, differs importantly from the results obtained in more biomimetic micro-fluidic environments, made of interconnected chambers and channels. However, discrete cell modelling within lab- and organ-on-a-chip devices, to our knowledge, is not yet found in the literature, although it may prove useful for designing and optimizing these types of systems. Consequently, in this study we focus on the establishment of a direct connection between the computer-aided designs (CAD) of microfluidic systems, especially labs- and organs-on-chips (and their multi-chamber and multi-channel structures), and the lattices for discrete cell modeling approaches aimed at the simulation of collective cell interactions, whose boundaries are defined directly from the CAD models. We illustrate the proposal using a quite straightforward cellular automata model, apply it to simulating cells with different growth rates, within a selected set of microsystem designs, and validate it by tuning the growth rates with the support of cell culture experiments and by checking the results with a real microfluidic system.