Single cell mechanics: stress stiffening and kinematic hardening

Abstract

Cell mechanical properties are fundamental to the organism but remain poorly understood. We report a comprehensive phenomenological framework for the nonlinear rheology of single fibroblast cells: a superposition of elastic stiffening and viscoplastic kinematic hardening. Our results show, that in spite of cell complexity its mechanical properties can be cast into simple, well-defined rules, which provide mechanical cell strength and robustness via control of crosslink slippage.

arXiv comment4 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Nonlinear Elasticity in Biological Gels
• The origin of stiffening in cross-linked semiflexible networks
• A master relation defines the nonlinear viscoelasticity of single fibroblasts
• Remodeling of biological tissue: Mechanically induced reorientation of a transversely isotropic chain network

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Broken detailed balance and non-equilibrium dynamics in living systems
• Inelastic mechanics of sticky biopolymer networks
• The role of the cytoskeleton in volume regulation and beading transitions in PC12 neurites
• Loops versus lines and the compression stiffening of cells
• Mechanical fluidity of fully suspended biological cells
• A minimal model for the inelastic mechanics of biopolymer networks and cells
• Fluctuations and differential contraction during regeneration of Hydra vulgaris tissue toroids
• An interpenetrating-network theory of cytoplasm