Unlike common engineering materials, living matter can autonomously respond to environmental changes. Living structures can grow stronger, weaker, larger, or smaller within months, weeks, or days as a result of a continuous microstructural turnover and renewal. Hard tissues can adapt by increasing their density and grow strong. Soft tissues can adapt by increasing their volume and grow large. For more than three decades, the mechanics community has actively contributed to understand the phenomena of growth and remodeling from a mechanistic point of view. However, to date, there is no single, unified characterization of growth, which is equally accepted by all scientists in the field. Here we shed light on the continuum modeling of growth and remodeling of living matter, and give a comprehensive overview of historical developments and trends. We provide a state-of-the-art review of current research highlights, and discuss challenges and potential future directions. Using the example of volumetric growth, we illustrate how we can establish and utilize growth theories to characterize the functional adaptation of soft living matter. We anticipate this review to be the starting point for critical discussions and future research in growth and remodeling, with a potential impact on life science and medicine.

中文翻译：

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增长和重塑的前沿


与普通工程材料不同，生命物质可以自主响应环境变化。由于微观结构的不断更新和更新，生命结构可以在数月、数周或数天内变得更强、更弱、更大或更小。硬组织可以通过增加密度来适应并变得强壮。软组织可以通过增加体积并变大来适应。三十多年来，力学界为从机械的角度理解生长和重塑现象做出了积极贡献。然而，迄今为止，还没有一个单一的、统一的生长表征被该领域所有科学家同等接受。在这里，我们阐明了生命物质生长和重塑的连续体模型，并全面概述了历史发展和趋势。我们对当前研究亮点进行最先进的回顾，并讨论挑战和潜在的未来方向。以体积生长为例，我们说明了如何建立和利用生长理论来表征软生命物质的功能适应。我们预计这篇综述将成为生长和重塑方面批判性讨论和未来研究的起点，并对生命科学和医学产生潜在影响。