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Traction patterns of tumor cells

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Abstract

The traction exerted by a cell on a planar deformable substrate can be indirectly obtained on the basis of the displacement field of the underlying layer. The usual methodology used to address this inverse problem is based on the exploitation of the Green tensor of the linear elasticity problem in a half space (Boussinesq problem), coupled with a minimization algorithm under force penalization. A possible alternative strategy is to exploit an adjoint equation, obtained on the basis of a suitable minimization requirement. The resulting system of coupled elliptic partial differential equations is applied here to determine the force field per unit surface generated by T24 tumor cells on a polyacrylamide substrate. The shear stress obtained by numerical integration provides quantitative insight of the traction field and is a promising tool to investigate the spatial pattern of force per unit surface generated in cell motion, particularly in the case of such cancer cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Matematica, Politecnico di Torino, corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Turin, Italy

    D. Ambrosi

  2. INSERM, U823, Grenoble, France

    A. Duperray

  3. Institut d’oncologie/développement Albert Bonniot et Institut Francais du Sang, Université Joseph Fourier-Grenoble I, Faculté de Médecine, UMR-S823, Grenoble, France

    A. Duperray

  4. Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique, CNRS and Université Grenoble I, UMR 5588, 140 avenue de la physique, BP 87, 38402, Saint-Martin d’Hères cedex, France

    V. Peschetola & C. Verdier

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  1. D. Ambrosi
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  2. A. Duperray
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  3. V. Peschetola
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  4. C. Verdier
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Correspondence to D. Ambrosi.

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Ambrosi, D., Duperray, A., Peschetola, V. et al. Traction patterns of tumor cells. J. Math. Biol. 58, 163–181 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-008-0167-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-008-0167-1

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