What do cells regulate in soft tissues on short time scales?

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

Computer Science - Computational Engineering; Finance; and Science

DDC Class

600: Technik

Funding(s)

Vaskuläre Wachstums- und Umbildungsprozesse in Aneurysmen

Experimentelle Untersuchung und mathematische Modellierung mechanisch gesteuerter Wachstums- und Umbauprozesse in postpubertären Schweineharnblasen

Funding Organisations

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

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.

Publication version

publishedVersion

Lizenz

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Name

1-s2.0-S174270612100492X-main.pdf

Size

2.55 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

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What do cells regulate in soft tissues on short time scales?