Effects of compressive residual stress on the morphologic changes of fibroblasts

Abstract

Recently, the term tensotaxis was proposed to describe the phenomenon that tensile stress or strain affects cell migration. Even so, less attention has been paid to the effects of compressive stress on cell behavior. In this study, by using an injection-molded method combined with photoelastic technology, we developed residual stress gradient-controlled poly-L-lactide discs. After culturing NIH-3T3 fibroblasts on the stress gradient substrate, the cell distributions for high- and low-stress regions were measured and compared. Our results showed that there were significantly more cells in the low-compressive stress region relative to their high-stress analogs (p < 0.05). In addition, NIH-3T3 fibroblasts in the low-compressive stress region expressed more abundant extensive filopodia. These findings provide greater insight into the interaction between cells and substrates, and could serve as a useful reference for connective tissue development and repair.

Droplet motion driven by tensotaxis

“…While several mechanistic models have been proposed [22,23], the understanding of tensotaxis is still very limited. Controlled experimental studies of tensotaxis are particularly challenging because prestraining the substrate is often accompanied by an increase in the substrate stiffness as a result of nonlinear material response [24], thus producing a combination of tensotaxis and durotaxis. A theoretical model that allows isolating the effects of tensotaxis would contribute to a better understanding of the process.…”

A minimal mechanosensing model predicts keratocyte evolution on flexible substrates

“…We make a mechanosensing hypothesis, which we refer to as local tensotaxis: the lamellipodium boundary tends to protrude locally in areas of tension and recede in areas of compression. This is motivated by a global tensotaxis behaviour: cells are known to move away from regions of compressive stress [53], in addition to favouring tensile stress [10]. Since stress S, being a tensor, can be both compressive and tensile at the same point (in different directions) we must clarify the precise meaning of tension and compression.…”

Structural biology response of a collagen hydrogel synthetic extracellular matrix with embedded human fibroblast: computational and experimental analysis

“…In parallel, in vitro experiments have been performed to Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11517-015-1277-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Pioneer computational models have been generated based on the role of three phenomena: migration [25,29,30], proliferation [8] and actin-myosin traction mechanism [24] that may drive to ECM deformation and formation of new structures.…”

“…Despite the existence of previous computational models aiming to simulate the cell-induced ECM contraction process [8,11,24,25,29], to date, no reports exist that combine the effect of the three above-mentioned parameters (proliferation, migration and cytoskeleton exerted forces) and its cross-linking in a 3D model. Moreover, many questions regarding this contraction process remain unsolved.…”