The modelling of tissue growth in confined geometri es, effect of surface tension

This contribution presents a model for tissue growt h inside confined geometries and gives a brief expl oration of the effect of surface stress on the resultant kinetics. In the model we f ollow the approach of Ambrosi et al, and apply Onsa ger’s principle to derive a thermodynamically consistent model for growth. The model can be solved semi-analytically for simple ge ometries and compares well with experimental results on cell culture expe riments with MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblast cells carried out in pores produced using rapid prototyping.