Mechanical and chemical forces during vascular network formation

During blood vessel formation, endothelial cells respond not only to chemical gradients (chemotaxis), but also to the strain of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and, possibly, to ECM mechanical properties. The relative importance on the different factors during formation of vascular networks under experimental conditions is still controversial. Patterns formed in culture conditions have been explained both by modeling the mechanical interaction between cells and the ECM, and by modeling potential chemical interactions. I shall discuss the assumptions and results behind the different mathematical models.