Determining Cell Fate Transition Probabilities to VEGF/Ang 1 Levels: Relating Computational Modeling to Microfluidic Angiogenesis Studies

Angiogenesis is crucial during many physiological processes, and is influenced by various biochemical and biomechanical factors. Two such factors: VEGF and Ang 1 are known to be critical and we demonstrate here their effect of sprout formation in an in vitro microfluidic system. Previously, we have developed a 3D hybrid, agent-field model where individual cells are modeled as sprout-forming agents in a matrix field. We have conducted microfluidic experiments under different concentrations of VEGF and Ang 1 and analyzed the difference in sprout number and sprout lengths using Decision Tree Analysis. We demonstrate that under specific transition probabilities, the model gives us capillary characteristics similar to those seen in experiments (R(2) similar to 0.82-0.99). Thus, this model can be used to cluster sprout morphology as a function of various influencing factors and, within bounds, predict if a certain growth factor will affect migration or proliferation as it impacts sprout morphology