Cell-to-cell variability in deformations across compressed myoblasts.

Area of Science:

• Cellular Mechanobiology
• Biophysics
• Computational Biology

Background:

• Cellular responses to mechanical forces are often localized, not uniform.
• Individual cell geometry, like nuclear size and surface curvature, influences these localized deformations.
• Variability exists even within cell populations, complicating mechanical response analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify cell-to-cell variability in localized tensile strains within the plasma membrane (PM) and nuclear surface area (NSA) of compressed myoblasts.
• To compare the mechanical performance and strain patterns across individual cells.
• To understand how cell geometry influences mechanical strain distribution.

Main Methods:

• Developed and utilized a confocal microscopy-based, 3D cell-specific finite element modeling (FEM) approach.
• Modeled five individual C2C12 undifferentiated myoblasts from the same culture.
• Simulated compression and calculated tensile strains in the PM and NSA, along with variability metrics.

Main Results:

• Significant cell-to-cell variability (coefficient of variation up to ~35%) was observed in tensile strains across the PM and NSA.
• Smaller external compressions induced greater variability in intracellular strains compared to larger deformations.
• External deformations required to exceed specific strain thresholds were remarkably consistent across different cells.

Conclusions:

• Cell geometry introduces significant variability in localized mechanical strain responses within a cell population.
• Despite variability in strain magnitudes, cells exhibit similar thresholds for localized plasma membrane and nuclear surface area strain.
• Understanding cell-specific mechanical variability is vital for interpreting experimental data in mechanobiology.