A stochastic modeling framework for single cell migration: coupling contractility and focal adhesions
arXiv:1810.11435
Abstract
The interaction of the actin cytoskeleton with cell-substrate adhesions is necessary for cell migration. While the trajectories of motile cells have a stochastic character, investigations of cell motility mechanisms rarely elaborate on the origins of the observed randomness. Here, guided by a few fundamental attributes of cell motility, we construct a minimal stochastic cell migration model from ground-up. The resulting model couples a deterministic actomyosin contractility mechanism with stochastic cell-substrate adhesion kinetics, and yields a well-defined piecewise deterministic process. Numerical simulations reproduce several experimentally observed results, including anomalous diffusion, tactic migration, and contact guidance. This work provides a basis for the development of cell-cell collision and population migration models.
References in corpus (5)
- Anomalous dynamics of cell migration
- Persistent Cell Motion in the Absence of External Signals: A Search Strategy for Eukaryotic Cells
- Stability of adhesion clusters under constant force
- Crawling and turning in a minimal reaction-diffusion cell motility model: coupling cell shape and biochemistry
- A mathematical model of contact inhibition of locomotion: coupling contractility and focal adhesions