Active Gel Model of Amoeboid Cell Motility

Abstract

We develop a model of amoeboid cell motility based on active gel theory. Modeling the motile apparatus of a eukaryotic cell as a confined layer of finite length of poroelastic active gel permeated by a solvent, we first show that, due to active stress and gel turnover, an initially static and homogeneous layer can undergo a contractile-type instability to a polarized moving state in which the rear is enriched in gel polymer. This agrees qualitatively with motile cells containing an actomyosin-rich uropod at their rear. We find that the gel layer settles into a steadily moving, inhomogeneous state at long times, sustained by a balance between contractility and filament turnover. In addition, our model predicts an optimal value of the gel-susbstrate adhesion leading to maximum layer speed, in agreement with cell motility assays. The model may be relevant to motility of cells translocating in complex, confining environments that can be mimicked experimentally by cell migration through microchannels.

To appear in New Journal of Physics

References in corpus (4)

• Pushing off the walls: a mechanism of cell motility in confinement
• Generic phase diagram of active polar films
• Instabilities and Oscillations in Isotropic Active Gels
• Pattern formation driven by nematic ordering of assembling biopolymers

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Nonequilibrium Physics in Biology
• Modelling fluid deformable surfaces with an emphasis on biological interfaces
• Periodic migration in a physical model of cells on micropatterns
• Design of nematic liquid crystals to control microscale dynamics
• Mechanics of motility initiation and motility arrest in crawling cells
• Instabilities, motion and deformation of active fluid droplets
• Optimality of contraction-driven crawling
• Tractionless Self-Propulsion of Active Drops
• How many ways a cell can move: the modes of self-propulsion of an active drop
• Differential-activity driven instabilities in biphasic active matter
• Chemo-mechanical model of a cell as a stochastic active gel
• Permeation Instabilities in Active, Polar Gels
• Optogenetic control of intracellular flows and cell migration: a comprehensive mathematical analysis with a minimal active gel model
• Cell crawling on a compliant substrate: a biphasic relation with linear friction
• Spontaneous Spatiotemporal Ordering of Shape Oscillations Enhances Cell Migration
• Active-gel Theory for Multicellular Migration of Polar Cells in the Extra-cellular Matrix
• Cell motility as an energy minimization process
• Initiation of motility on a compliant substrate