A Model for the Increased Elastic Compliance in Human Cancer Cells

Abstract

Human epithelial cancer cells are known to exhibit a reorganization of their keratin cytoskeleton and an attendant change in their elastic stiffness upon incubation with a natural lipid. The change in the keratin network was modeled and the model structures were computationally deformed using a Finite Element Method. The simulation results show a marked difference in the mechanical behavior of the cells for tensile and compressive loading conditions. In the former case, the elastic compliance increases in agreement with experimental findings. We interpret this increase by applying principles of structural engineering and suggest that cells may generally use these principles to regulate their cytoskeletal architecture.

3D finite element analysis of uniaxial cell stretching: from image to insight

“…Simplified numerical models of cell mechanics have been employed in several studies. Depending on the geometry and physics of a particular experimental setup, closed-form solutions of elasticity theory [18], shell models [3] as well as 2D/3D finite element models [12,13,15,16] have been applied for the numerical analysis of the mechanical response of single cells and cell clusters. The majority of works is based on hyperelastic or viscoelastic approximation of cellular soft matter with material properties statically given for the time span of cell manipulation.…”