| Journal of Advances in Biomedical Engineering and Technology (Volume 3 Issue 2) | |
| Modeling a Cell Motility on the Surface with a Pit |  |
| Pages 28-37 Arkady Voloshin DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15379/2409-3394.2016.03.02.01 Published: 03 November 2016 |
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| Abstract | |
| Living cells respond to outside physical environment in many ways including changing their geometry and location. A cell was modeled as a tensegrity structure that consists of the cytoskeleton, the cellular nucleus and lamellipodia. This model was based on the use of isolated elastic components consisting of a set of continuous compression components and a set of continuous tension components. To investigate the influence of surface topography on cellular movement, several representative cases were designed and simulated. By using internal strain energy as a main criterion to estimate the stability of the cell at various locations, we could show that cells have a tendency to move towards and stay on the sidewall of a pit. They also have a tendency to leave the concave corner. The obtained simulation results were in agreement with the available experimental evidence. Thus, the proposed model and approach may be a valuable tool for understanding the mechanics of a cell motion. | |
| Keywords | |
| Cell motion, Strain energy, Tensegrity, Modelling, Surface topology. | |
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