Tissue Engineering Scaffold Growth Simulator

Scaffold Growth

Growth rate 1.0

Scaffold pore size 1.0

Nutrient diffusion range 6.0

Cell count

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Tissue coverage

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Simulated time

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Growing / mature

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How it works

A central vascular channel supplies oxygen and nutrients that diffuse outward through the porous scaffold. Each lattice node's nutrient concentration falls off exponentially with its radial distance from that channel. A node seeded with cells matures at a rate set by the local nutrient level and the growth-rate control; once mature enough, it can seed its empty lattice neighbours, so tissue spreads outward one strut at a time — fastest near the channel, stalling once nutrient concentration drops too low to sustain new growth.

C(r) = exp(−r / D)                    nutrient at radius r, diffusion range D
dM/dt = r_growth · C(r)                maturation of a growing cell
P(seed neighbour) = 1 − exp(−dt·r_growth·C(r)·β)

Growth rate — how fast a colonised node matures and how eagerly it seeds its neighbours; higher values fill the scaffold faster.
Scaffold pore size — spacing between lattice struts; larger pores space nodes further apart in real distance, letting nutrients reach deeper before decaying — more porous, more permissive.
Nutrient diffusion range — how far the vascular channel's supply reaches before falling off; a short range starves growth near the channel's edge, a long range lets tissue colonise the whole scaffold.
Reset scaffold — reseeds a single cell at the channel base and clears all growth so you can compare parameter settings from the same starting point.

Real-world relevance: this diffusion-limited colonisation is exactly why engineered tissue constructs stay thin or need an artificial vascular network — without a nearby nutrient/oxygen supply, cells more than a few hundred microns from a vessel starve before the scaffold fully populates.

Vascular channel Growing cell Mature tissue

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