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Implementing cell contractility in filament‐based cytoskeletal models
Author(s) -
Fallqvist B.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
cytoskeleton
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.95
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1949-3592
pISSN - 1949-3584
DOI - 10.1002/cm.21279
Subject(s) - cytoskeleton , protein filament , actin , contractility , biological system , function (biology) , stiffness , work (physics) , biology , intermediate filament , biophysics , strain (injury) , mechanics , structural engineering , cell , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , anatomy , engineering , biochemistry , thermodynamics , endocrinology
Cells are known to respond over time to mechanical stimuli, even actively generating force at longer times. In this paper, a microstructural filament‐based cytoskeletal network model is extended to incorporate this active response, and a computational study to assess the influence on relaxation behaviour was performed. The incorporation of an active response was achieved by including a strain energy function of contractile activity from the cross‐linked actin filaments. A four‐state chemical model and strain energy function was adopted, and generalisation to three dimensions and the macroscopic deformation field was performed by integration over the unit sphere. Computational results in MATLAB and ABAQUS/Explicit indicated an active cellular response over various time‐scales, dependent on contractile parameters. Important features such as force generation and increasing cell stiffness due to prestress are qualitatively predicted. The work in this paper can easily be extended to encompass other filament‐based cytoskeletal models as well. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.