Energetics of cytoskeletal gel contraction

Ferraresso, Matteo; Kong, Albert; Hasan, Mehadi; Agostinelli, Daniele; Elfring, Gwynn J.; Bacca, Mattia

doi:10.1039/d2sm01557a

Soft Matter

2023

DOI: 10.1039/d2sm01557a

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Energetics of cytoskeletal gel contraction

Matteo Ferraresso

Albert Kong

Mehadi Hasan

et al.

Abstract: Cytoskeletal gels are prototyped to reproduce the mechanical contraction of the cytoskeleton in-vitro. They are composed of a polymer network (backbone), swollen by the presence of a liquid solvent, and...

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A model for the contraction kinetics of cytoskeletal gel slabs

Ferraresso,

Shojaeifard,

Kong

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Physics

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Cytoskeletal gels are engineered prototypes that mimic the contractile behavior of a cell in vitro. They are composed of an active polymer matrix and a liquid solvent. Their contraction kinetics is governed by two dynamic phenomena: mechanotransduction (molecular motor activation) and solvent diffusion. In this paper, we solve the transient problem for the simple case of a thin gel slab in uniaxial contraction under two extreme conditions: motor-limited or slow motor (SM) activation regime, and diffusion-limited or fast motor (FM) activation regime. The former occurs when diffusion is much faster than mechanotransduction, while the latter occurs in the opposite case. We observe that in the SM regime, the contraction time scales as t/t0∼(λ/λ0)−3, with t0 being the nominal contraction time, and λ and λ0 being the final and initial stretches of the slab. t0 is proportional to 1/w˙, where w˙ is the average mechanical power generated by the molecular motors per unit reference (dry polymer) volume. In the FM regime, the contraction time scales as t/t1∼(1−λ/λ0)2, with t1 being the nominal contraction time, here proportional to the ratio L2/D, where L is the reference (dry polymer) thickness, and D is the diffusivity of the solvent in the gel. The transition between the SM and FM regimes is defined by a characteristic power density w˙∗, where w˙≪w˙∗ gives the SM regime and w˙≫w˙∗ gives the FM regime. Intuitively, w˙∗ is proportional to D/L2, where, at a given power density w˙, a thinner gel slab (smaller L) or including smaller solvent molecules (higher D) is more likely to be in the SM regime given that solvent diffusion will occur faster than motor activation.

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A model for the contraction kinetics of cytoskeletal gel slabs

Ferraresso,

Shojaeifard,

Kong

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Physics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

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Energetics of cytoskeletal gel contraction

Abstract: Cytoskeletal gels are prototyped to reproduce the mechanical contraction of the cytoskeleton in-vitro. They are composed of a polymer network (backbone), swollen by the presence of a liquid solvent, and...

Cited by 1 publication

References 30 publications

A model for the contraction kinetics of cytoskeletal gel slabs

A model for the contraction kinetics of cytoskeletal gel slabs

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