Physics – Condensed Matter – Soft Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
2003-08-11
PNAS 100: 9274-9279 (2003)
Physics
Condensed Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
Revtex, 7 pages, 4 Postscript files included
Scientific paper
10.1073/pnas.1233544100
Adhering cells actively probe the mechanical properties of their environment and use the resulting information to position and orient themselves. We show that a large body of experimental observations can be consistently explained from one unifying principle, namely that cells strengthen contacts and cytoskeleton in the direction of large effective stiffness. Using linear elasticity theory to model the extracellular environment, we calculate optimal cell organization for several situations of interest and find excellent agreement with experiments for fibroblasts, both on elastic substrates and in collagen gels: cells orient in the direction of external tensile strain, they orient parallel and normal to free and clamped surfaces, respectively, and they interact elastically to form strings. Our method can be applied for rational design of tissue equivalents. Moreover our results indicate that the concept of contact guidance has to be reevaluated. We also suggest that cell-matrix contacts are upregulated by large effective stiffness in the environment because in this way, build-up of force is more efficient.
Bischofs Ilka B.
Schwarz Ulrich S.
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