Lattice percolation approach to numerical modelling of tissue aging

Abstract

We describe a percolation-type approach to modelling of the processes of aging and certain other properties of tissues analysed as systems consisting of interacting cells. Tissues are considered as structures made of regular healthy, senescent, dead (apoptotic) cells, and studied dynamically with the ongoing processes including regular cell division to fill vacant sites left by dead cells, healthy cells becoming senescent or dying, and other processes. Statistical-mechanics description can provide patterns of time dependence and snapshots of morphological system properties. An illustrative application of the developed theoretical modelling approach is reported, confirming recent experimental findings that inhibition of senescence can lead to extended lifespan.

Keywords:

• tissue aging
• percolation model
• senescence

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Joan Adler and Sergii Domanskyi for useful input and collaboration.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was in part supported by a seed grant from Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics 2014 to SL.