Cytoskeletal Anisotropy Controls Geometry and Forces of Adherent Cells

Abstract

We investigate the geometrical and mechanical properties of adherent cells characterized by a highly anisotropic actin cytoskeleton. Using a combination of theoretical work and experiments on micropillar arrays, we demonstrate that the shape of the cell edge is accurately described by elliptical arcs, whose eccentricity expresses the degree of anisotropy of the internal cell stresses. This results in a spatially varying tension along the cell edge, that significantly affects the traction forces exerted by the cell on the substrate. Our work highlights the strong interplay between cell mechanics and geometry and paves the way towards the reconstruction of cellular forces from geometrical data.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Swarming, swirling and stasis in sequestered bristle-bots
• Effect of adhesion geometry and rigidity on cellular force distributions
• Cytoskeletal Anisotropy Controls Geometry and Forces of Adherent Cells

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Emergence of active nematic behaviour in monolayers of isotropic cells
• Design of nematic liquid crystals to control microscale dynamics
• Polar Fluctuations Lead to Extensile Nematic Behavior in Confluent Tissues
• Cytoskeletal Anisotropy Controls Geometry and Forces of Adherent Cells
• Anchoring-dependent bifurcation in nematic microflows within cylindrical capillaries
• Contour models of cellular adhesion