A New study explains the development of veins in plants and animals read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/1141-a-new-study-explains-the-development-of-veins-in-plants-and-animals

In a new study, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have explained how the rule of adaptive feedback governs the development of vascular systems in both plants and animals.

Adaptive feedback describes the ability of a living organism to alter the size of a vein based on the rate of liquid flow. Greater amounts of liquid flow, inspire a wider vein, while lesser amounts inspire a thinner and eventually closed off the vein.

Previously, scientists attempted to build predictive models using the rule of adaptive feedback the results were faulty. Simulations failed to produce vascular systems resembling those found in nature.

Recently, Penn researchers realized the models were missing an important variable growth. When they redesigned adaptive feedback models, while accounting for the growth of an organism over time, the results were much improved.

The model he devised not only reflected real life vein networks, but also was the most efficient possible design. It predicts that, as an organism grows, a series of smaller and smaller veins spread out to carry nutrients to the new areas.

Henrik Ronellenfitsch, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn, said, this study implies that whenever you have a system that transports liquids, energy, and maybe other things we haven't looked at, if you have growth, then you will get something close to the best possible network the absolute best one, not just a good one.

Ronellenfitsch works in the lab of Penn physicist Eleni Katifori. Katifori believes the latest breakthrough has applications beyond biology.

While this model helps explain how vein networks form, it does not provide the whole picture. The model does not yet include redundant veins that make it possible to recover from tissue damage, which is an important feature of biological systems.

Ronellenfitsch said, in our model, if you cut something everything downstream from that vein is dead, and that’s not a feature that vein networks have. Real networks are highly redundant.