Abstract
The ability to predict the mechanical responses of different adherent cell types presents many opportunities to mechanobiology research to further identify changes from cell physiological conditions to disease. Using the multi-structural cell model presented in Chap 9, we aim to show how variation of the material properties of the intracellular components affects cell response after compression and shearing. A parametric study was performed to understand the key mechanical features from different cell types, focussing on variation of the mechanical properties of specific cytoskeleton components and prestress. Using the previously defined elastic formulation, we predicted that cell force is mainly affected by changes in cortex thickness, cortex Young’s modulus and rigidity of the cytoplasm. Changes in rigidity of actin bundles and number of microtubules influence cell response to shear loads, while a higher number of actin bundles aligned in the direction of applied compression increase cell response to compression.
Furthermore, we also performed a parametric study to evaluate the contribution of the viscoelastic properties of the cortex and cytoplasm under compressive loading, in which the mechanical behaviour of these components was represented by a power-law model. The time-dependent responses observed were remarkably similar to those reported for a variety of measurements with atomic force microscopy, suggesting this model is a consensus description of the fundamental principles defining cell mechanics. Additionally, we reported that viscoelastic properties of the cortex are essential to define the time-dependent response of the cell to compressive loads.
This chapter forms part the PhD thesis of Sara Barreto available here: http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4928/
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Barreto, S., Lacroix, D. (2019). Quantification of CSK Mechanics and Deformation in Relation to Cellular Functioning. In: Multiscale Mechanobiology in Tissue Engineering. Frontiers of Biomechanics, vol 3. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8075-3_10
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