Journal
JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS
Volume 41, Issue 11, Pages 2379-2387Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2008.05.026
Keywords
cell mechanics; cell structure; computer model; contractility; cytoskeleton; tensegrity
Categories
Funding
- NIH [CA45548, F32-NS048669]
- NSF [DMR-0213805, AHA 0735203N]
- Zhejiang University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Stress fibers are contractile bundles in the cytoskeleton that stabilize cell structure by exerting traction forces on the extracellular matrix. Individual stress fibers are molecular bundles composed of parallel actin and myosin filaments linked by various actin-binding proteins, which are organized end-on-end in a sarcomere-like pattern within an elongated three-dimensional network. While measurements of single stress fibers in living cells show that they behave like tensed viscoelastic fibers, precisely how this mechanical behavior arises from this complex supramolecular arrangement of protein components remains unclear. Here we show that computationally modeling a stress fiber as a multi-modular tensegrity network can predict several key behaviors of stress fibers measured in living cells, including viscoelastic retraction, fiber splaying after severing, non-uniform contraction, and elliptical strain of a puncture wound within the fiber. The tensegrity model can also explain how they simultaneously experience passive tension and generate active contraction forces; in contrast, a tensed cable net model predicts some, but not all, of these properties. Thus, tensegrity models may provide a useful link between molecular and cellular scale mechanical behaviors and represent a new handle on multi-scale modeling of living materials. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available