Controlling cell-matrix traction forces by extracellular geometry

Abstract

We present a minimal continuum model of strongly adhering cells as active contractile isotropic media and use the model to study the effect of the geometry of the adhesion patch in controlling the spatial distribution of traction and cellular stresses. Activity is introduced as a contractile, hence negative, spatially homogeneous contribution to the pressure. The model shows that patterning of adhesion regions can be used to control traction stress distribution and yields several results consistent with experimental observations. Specifically, the cell spread area is found to increase with substrate stiffness and an analytic expression for the dependence is obtained for circular cells. The correlation between the magnitude of traction stresses and cell boundary curvature is also demonstrated and analyzed.

12 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Scaling of Traction Forces with Size of Cohesive Cell Colonies
• Effect of adhesion geometry and rigidity on cellular force distributions
• Force localization in contracting cell layers
• Contractile stresses in cohesive cell layers on finite-thickness substrates
• Mechanical response of active gels
• Contractile network models for adherent cells
• Polymorphism and bistability in adherent cells

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Dynamics of Cell Shape and Forces on Micropatterned Substrates Predicted by a Cellular Potts Model
• Differential cellular contractility as a mechanism for stiffness sensing