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Published on: October 19, 2014
Standard Loading Profile in Matrix Rigidity Sensing
Chenling Dong1, Xiaofeng Chen1, Bin Chen2
1Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
It is important to learn features of locally applied forces by cells during matrix rigidity sensing, since the function of mechanosensing proteins would be affected by force magnitude, loading velocity, or even loading history. Here, we investigate a rigidity-sensing apparatus consisting of a contractile unit on matrices. Strikingly, our analysis indicates that the matrix rigidity is not only sensed with a fixed step size in displacement but also with a fixed apparent loading velocity. The fixed step size is shown to be correlated with the monomer size of actin filament. This work suggests that the loading profile during rigidity sensing is regulated by various aspects of the contractile unit, which then serves as the standard in sensing varied rigidity of the matrix.
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