The key role of electro-chemical signals in cellular processes had been known for many years, but more recently the interplay with mechanics has been put in evidence and attracted substantial research interests. Indeed, the sensitivity of cells to mechanical stimuli coming from the microenvironment turns out to be relevant in many biological and physiological circumstances. In particular, experimental evidence demonstrated that cells on elastic planar substrates undergoing periodic stretches, mimicking native cyclic strains in the tissue where they reside, actively reorient their cytoskeletal stress fibres. At the end of the realignment process, the cell axis forms a certain angle with the main stretching direction. Due to the importance of a deeper understanding of mechanotransduction, such a phenomenon was studied both from the experimental and the mathematical modelling point of view. The aim of this review is to collect and discuss both the experimental results on cell reorientation and the fundamental features of the mathematical models that have been proposed in the literature.

Cell orientation under stretch: A review of experimental findings and mathematical modelling / Giverso, Chiara; Loy, Nadia; Lucci, Giulio; Preziosi, Luigi. - In: JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY. - ISSN 0022-5193. - 572:(2023), pp. 1-28. [10.1016/j.jtbi.2023.111564]

Cell orientation under stretch: A review of experimental findings and mathematical modelling

Giverso, Chiara;Loy, Nadia;Lucci, Giulio;Preziosi, Luigi
2023

Abstract

The key role of electro-chemical signals in cellular processes had been known for many years, but more recently the interplay with mechanics has been put in evidence and attracted substantial research interests. Indeed, the sensitivity of cells to mechanical stimuli coming from the microenvironment turns out to be relevant in many biological and physiological circumstances. In particular, experimental evidence demonstrated that cells on elastic planar substrates undergoing periodic stretches, mimicking native cyclic strains in the tissue where they reside, actively reorient their cytoskeletal stress fibres. At the end of the realignment process, the cell axis forms a certain angle with the main stretching direction. Due to the importance of a deeper understanding of mechanotransduction, such a phenomenon was studied both from the experimental and the mathematical modelling point of view. The aim of this review is to collect and discuss both the experimental results on cell reorientation and the fundamental features of the mathematical models that have been proposed in the literature.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2983311