Mechanics tuning of liquid inclusions via bio-coating

Cross-scale mechanobiological regulation of cylindrical compressible liquid inclusion via coating

“…To explore the physiological implications of our theoretical solutions, we compile a list of common examples involving coatings, ranging from sparse cells to biological tissues, as summarized in table S1 of supplementary material. It is worth noting that even if a liquid inclusion becomes solid, the volumetric strain of the solid inclusion remains the same as that of the liquid one: the liquid can be considered as a special kind of solid (zero shear modulus) and hence shear deformation does not cause any volumetric change [13]. Accordingly, the tuning effect of coating on the volumetric strain of a solid inclusion is also determined by the sign of…”

“…The amplification effect of coatings is also observed in the experiments and finite element simulation for the osteocytes with PCM embedded in bone [14,15]. Subsequently, built upon our previous studies [13], we developed another mathematical model to quantify, in the presence of both coating and surface effects, how the mechanical properties (e.g. stiffness and thickness) of coating, liquid compressibility and surface tension affect the volumetric strain of a coated spherical liquid inclusion (e.g.…”

“…In addition to the coatings of composites, the coated inclusions are plentiful in biological systems. In our previous study [13], by modeling a closed structure with coating (e.g. osteocytes, myofibroblasts and tumors) as a coated spherical inclusion, we found that external mechanical stimuli are usually amplified by the presence of coating in healthy cells, but attenuated in fibrosis and certain cancers.…”

Two circular incompressible liquid inclusions

“…Although liquid inclusions trapped in solids such as crystals, biological tissues, hydrogels and elastomers are a common phenomenon in nature, the effect of liquid inclusions on local mechanical responses and on effective mechanical and physical properties of liquid-solid composites has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Recent studies on liquid inclusions in the past decade can be found in, for example, Style et al [1,2], Wu et al [3], Chen et al [4,5], Dai et al [6], Dai and Schiavone [7], Ti et al [8,9], Ghosh and Lopez-Pamies [10], Ghosh et al [11,12]. Previous studies on this topic have been focused on the rigorous analysis of an isolated liquid inclusion such as an ellipsoidal or elliptical liquid inclusion.…”