Growing Fibres on Curved Surfaces—Towards an Understanding of Tissue Growth in Bone

Biological materials display an enormous range of material properties ranging from soft flexible connective tissues to hard mineralised materials such as bone and shell. The diversity in (structural) properties is attained through the clever arrangement of a relatively small range of building blocks, being fibres (collagen, cellulose or chitin), matrices and minerals. Although much is known about the link between structrure and function, relatively little is known about how these materials grow and are organised over length scales much larger than that of a single cell. Many biological materials grow on or at an interface, the shape of which can also determine the orientation and arrangement of the growing elements, cells and extra cellular matrix. The interface itself will also change shape due to growth resulting in a complex coupling between changing geometry and the patterning of cells. This presentation will present theoretical and experimental explorations into the 3D pattern formation of growing fibrous materials and give insights into how surface curvature can influence the alignment of cells and extracellular matrix. The focus will be on 3D cell cultures of pre-osteoblast cell lines and simulations of tissue patterning on surfaces of different curvature. It is hoped that the knowledge gained will assist in the design of new substrates for tissue regeneration and allow us to use surface geometry as a tool to direct cells to produce tissues with tailored properties.