BACKGROUND Cell adhesion is a process that involves the interaction between the cell membrane and another surface, either a cell or a substrate. Unlike experimental tests, computer models can simulate processes and study the result of experiments in a shorter time and lower costs. One of the tools used to simulate biological processes is the cellular automata, which is a dynamic system that is discrete both in space and time. METHOD This work describes a computer model based on cellular automata for the adhesion process and cell proliferation to predict the behavior of a cell population in suspension and adhered to a substrate. The values of the simulated system were obtained through experimental tests on fibroblast monolayer cultures. RESULTS The results allow us to estimate the cells settling time in culture as well as the adhesion and proliferation time. The change in the cells morphology as the adhesion over the contact surface progress was also observed. The formation of the initial link between cell and the substrate of the adhesion was observed after 100 min where the cell on the substrate retains its spherical morphology during the simulation. The cellular automata model developed is, however, a simplified representation of the steps in the adhesion process and the subsequent proliferation. CONCLUSION A combined framework of experimental and computational simulation based on cellular automata was proposed to represent the fibroblast adhesion on substrates and changes in a macro-scale observed in the cell during the adhesion process. The approach showed to be simple and efficient.

中文翻译：

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模拟细胞黏附和增殖：一种基于细胞自动机的方法。

背景技术细胞粘附是涉及细胞膜与另一表面（细胞或基质）之间相互作用的过程。与实验测试不同，计算机模型可以在更短的时间内以更低的成本模拟过程并研究实验结果。用于模拟生物过程的工具之一是细胞自动机，它是一个动态系统，在空间和时间上都是离散的。方法这项工作描述了一种基于细胞自动机的计算机模型，用于粘附过程和细胞增殖，以预测悬浮和粘附在基质上的细胞群的行为。通过对成纤维细胞单层培养物的实验测试获得了模拟系统的值。结果这些结果使我们能够估计培养物中的细胞沉降时间以及粘附和增殖时间。还观察到随着接触表面上的粘附进展，细胞形态的变化。在100分钟后观察到细胞与基底之间的初始连接的形成，其中在模拟过程中基底上的细胞保持其球形形态。然而，开发的细胞自动机模型是粘附过程和后续增殖步骤的简化表示。结论提出了基于细胞自动机的实验和计算模拟的组合框架，以代表成纤维细胞在基质上的粘附以及粘附过程中细胞中观察到的宏观变化。