Image-based multiscale structural models of fibrous engineered tissues.

While it is firmly established that the mechanical behavior of most biological tissues, including bioengineered tissues, is governed by an underlying network of protein fibers, it is still not clear how best to obtain and utilize structural information to predict mechanical response. In this paper, methods are presented to (1) quantify the fiber arrangement in a tissue from different imaging tools, (2) incorporate that structure into a multiscale model, and (3) solve the model equations to predict both the microscopic and the macroscopic tissue response. In principle these concepts could be applied to any tissue (incorporating the specific tissue components as needed), but for demonstration purposes, the focus of the current work is on cell-compacted collagen gel, a model engineered tissue.