From a pluripotent stem cell to an ensemble of differentiated cells: Elements of theoretical tissue engineering

Abstract

We present Monte Carlo lattice simulations illustrating how the growth of stem and differentiated cells on a uniform surface can be governed (guided differentiation) by tuning long-range cell–cell communication. Due to spatial constraints on cell division, the growth rate is shown to strongly depend on the interplay of cellular division, diffusion, and signaling. With decreasing diffusion rate, the kinetics become slower. To increase the selectivity of the growth with respect to “desirable” cells, one can use induced messenger-mediated generation of these cells by stem cells. The simplest schemes based on this idea may, however, result in appreciable slowdown of the growth. A more optimal strategy may be simultaneous promotion of generation of desirable cells and stem cells.