The nature of the stresses induced during tissue growth

This work employs the constitutive principles of linear elasticity to examine the nature of growth-induced stresses in soft tissues. An analysis of the simpler case of isotropic growth gives insight into the effect of the spatial non-uniformity of the growth process on both the nature and distribution tissue stresses. Anisotropic growth is also considered, illustrating its role in relieving growth-induced stresses. The genesis of growth-induced stresses in soft tissues has important implications for a variety of physiological phenomena, including the collapse of blood vessels in solid tumours. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.