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What do cells regulate in soft tissues on short time scales?
Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.3873
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2021-07-28
Sprache
English
TORE-DOI
Journal
Volume
134
Start Page
348
End Page
356
Citation
Acta Biomaterialia 134: 348-356 (2021-04-09)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
PubMed ID
34332102
ArXiv ID
Publisher
Elsevier
Cells within living soft biological tissues seem to promote the maintenance of a mechanical state within a defined range near a so-called set-point. This mechanobiological process is often referred to as mechanical homeostasis. During this process, cells intimately interact with the fibers of the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). It remains poorly understood, however, what individual cells actually regulate during these interactions, and how these micromechanical regulations are translated to tissue level to lead to what we macroscopically call mechanical homeostasis. Herein, we examine this question by a combination of experiments, theoretical analysis and computational modeling. We demonstrate that on short time scales (hours) - during which deposition and degradation of ECM fibers can largely be neglected - cells appear to regulate neither the stress / strain in the ECM nor their own shape, but rather only the contractile forces that they exert on the surrounding ECM.
Subjects
Cell-matrix interactions
Discrete fiber model
Homeostasis
Mechanoregulation
Mechanosensing
Quantitative Biology - Cell Behavior
Quantitative Biology - Cell Behavior
Computer Science - Computational Engineering; Finance; and Science
DDC Class
600: Technik
Funding Organisations
More Funding Information
The authors gratefully ac- knowledge financial support by the International Graduate School of Science and Engineering (IGSSE) of Technical University of Mu- nich, Germany.
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