2020 AfroBiotech Conference
Modeling the Spatial Distribution of Collagen in Mesangial Fibrosis during Diabetic Kidney Disease
Authors
Thomas, H. Y. - Presenter, Oklahoma State University
Ford Versypt, A. N., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In the U.S. alone over 250,000 people use dialysis or have received a kidney transplant due to diabetic kidney failure. Although we have come a long way in the treatment of diabetes, kidney failure due to diabetic kidney damage is still prevalent, and the need for increasing our understanding of kidney damage to enable the development of better treatment methods is ever present. Thus the goal of this research is to develop computational models to better understand the kidney damage that occurs due to diabetic kidney disease. In the kidney glomerulus, the filtration unit of the kidney, lies a network of capillaries that are surrounded by interstitial tissue called the mesangium. In health, the mesangium acts as a support for the capillaries; however, during diabetic kidney disease, the mesangium undergoes excess deposition of collagen leading to irreparable damage to the environment around it. This damage occurs in stages that have marked spatial distribution patterns. Initially, the deposition is just diffuse collagen deposition which progresses onto nodular formations then segmental collagen deposition until the final stage of globular collagen deposition. Our goal is to understand the factors that affect the spatial distribution of collagen in mesangial fibrosis. Thus, we have developed an agent based model of mesangial fibrosis, using fundamental biological principles of collagen fiber growth, to enable the prediction of spatial deposition patterns and in doing so develop models to predict the progression of diabetic kidney damage.