Principles of Decentralized Pumping in Biological Systems

Jellyfish are interesting sea creatures that provide insight into the evolution of cardiovascular networks; while vertebrates are characterized by a centralized heart that allows the distribution of resources in the body through pulsatile pumping, jellyfish lack such a centralization. However, they also have complex vascular structures, with gastrovascular canals that extend throughout their bodies from their open mouths to their stomach pouches and back in 4-fold symmetrical fractal branching patterns that increase in complexity as they age and develop. Flow through these networks is generated through swimming motion, involving a muscle contraction leading to deformations of these canal networks. Here, we build a mathematical model using fluid dynamics and network theory principles to simulate the flow through these networks during contraction, looking at three different variations of swimming motions. Future directions include comparing the flow generated through simulation to experimental data, increasing the biological accuracy and complexity of the model, and incorporating the effects of cilia on the flow in our model.