Comparing individual-based approaches to modelling the self-organization of multicellular tissues

The coordinated behaviour of populations of cells plays a central role in tissue growth and renewal. Cells react to their microenvironment by modulating processes such as movement, growth and proliferation, and signalling. Alongside experimental studies, computational models offer a useful means by which to investigate these processes. To this end a variety of cell-based modelling approaches have been developed, ranging from lattice-based cellular automata to lattice-free models that treat cells as point-like particles or extended shapes. It is difficult to accurately compare between different modelling approaches, since one cannot distinguish between differences in behaviour due to the underlying model assumptions and those due to differences in the numerical implementation of the model. Here, we exploit the availability of an implementation of five popular cell-based modelling approaches within a consistent computational framework, Chaste (http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/chaste). This framework allows one to easily change constitutive assumptions within these models. In each case we provide full details of all technical aspects of our model implementations. We compare model implementations using four case studies, chosen to reflect the key cellular processes of proliferation, adhesion, and short-and long-range signalling. These case studies demonstrate the applicability of each model and provide a guide for model usage. Authors’ contributions JO and AF conceived of the study, designed the study, coordinated the study, carried out the computational modelling and drafted the manuscript. JP contributed to the computational modelling and helped draft the manuscript. PM and DG conceived of the study, designed the study and helped draft the manuscript. All authors gave final approval for publication.