Continuum mixture models of biological growth and remodeling: past successes and future opportunities

Abstract

Biological growth processes involve mass exchanges that increase, decrease, or replace material that constitutes cells, tissues, and organs. In most cases, such exchanges alter the structural makeup of the material and consequently affect associated mechanobiological responses to applied loads. Given that the type and extent of changes in structural integrity depend on the different constituents involved (e.g., particular cytoskeletal or extracellular matrix proteins), the continuum theory of mixtures is ideally suited to model the mechanics of growth and remodeling. The goal of this review is twofold: first, to highlight a few illustrative examples that show diverse applications of mixture theory to describe biological growth and/or remodeling; second, to identify some open problems in the fields of modeling soft-tissue growth and remodeling.