Application of Evolutionary Game Theory on stem cells interaction in bio-active scaffolds

Cardiac diseases represent one of the biggest death causes in modern society. Current therapies, despite their importance, do not give an efficient solution to the problem. However, stem cells research could represent a future hope for a more efficient solution. In particular, there is currently a great interest in myocardial tissue generation from stem cells cultures in 3D bio-active scaffolds. Those polymeric structures intend to mimic the environment inside the heart where cardiac cells, cardiomyocytes, are generated. Well designed scaffolds along with chemical substances contribute to the differentiation process of the stem cell. How this happens, and how a stem cells population becomes a myocardial tissue? There are many models that describe the differentiation process, but they consider the stem cell acting alone, subjected only to the environment. However, a cell lives surrounded by other cells, some stem and some differentiating, and they will necessarily interact exchanging signals. We studied a solution using Game Theory (GT) and in particular Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT). This theory has been widely applied to biology to describe animals behaviour. We set a very simple model to describe the basic concepts of EGT and present some early results.