Numerical Simulation of the Evolution of Wound Healing in the 3D Environment
J. N. Nchejane *
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, National University of Lesotho, Lesotho.
S. O. Gbenro
Department of Mathematical Science, Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere-Ekiti, Nigeria.
M. E. Thakedi
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, National University of Lesotho, Lesotho.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Numerical simulation of the wound healing behaviour by considering the coupled reaction-diffusion, transport and viscoelastic system is vital in investigating the mechanical stress field induced by cell migration. In this work, numerical simulation is viewed in three-dimensional space during a time course of wound healing. Over the years, many authors have developed two-dimensional mathematical models of wound healing, as supported by the background in the introduction below. But we know that a three-dimensional case realistically captures the tissue deformations. The two-dimensional simulation is restricted to observing the motion in two directions only. Hence, the interest is in the three-dimensional case. Therefore, to our knowledge, this is the first article to consider the numerical simulation of the coupled reaction-diffusion, transport and viscoelastic system during wound healing in a three-dimensional environment. Firstly, the two-dimensional evolution of wound healing is developed to compare our results with published data. Then the work is extended to three-dimensional wound healing, which is the main focus.
Keywords: Numerical simulation, wound healing, reaction-diffusion, cell migration, viscoelastic system