Simulation of Atherosclerotic Plaque Development using Agent-based Modelling

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is a local inflammatory disease characterized by maladaptive build-up of lipids,leukocytes,cholesterol,cellular waste products and extracellular matrix inside the artery wall. The described components contribute to plaque development and progression,each of them with proper features and rule-based behavior. Plaque progression is determined by the interaction between these components and the environment in which these components evolve. Agent-based modelling (ABM) is selected as an adequate approach to reproduce the evolution of plaque progression by simulating the behavior of autonomous cellular agents. The agent-based model proved to be a reliable model that is able to predict the history of atherosclerosis development and progression accurately. Our proposed method is based on 2D modelling of cross sections of artery wall and plaque development. Also,our atherosclerosis agent-based model included different characteristics such as behavior of cells and lipid dynamics in a variety of vessel cross-sections. Cell behavior which had a substantial impact on the lumen area,have the highest influence on our model.