title: An elasto-visco-plastic model of cell aggregates.
abstract: Concentrated cell suspensions exhibit different mechanical behavior depending on the mechanical stress or deformation they undergo. They have a mixed rheological nature: cells behave elastically or viscoelastically, they can adhere to each other whereas the carrying fluid is usually Newtonian. We report here on a new elasto-visco-plastic model which is able to describe the mechanical properties of a concentrated cell suspension or aggregate. It is based on the idea that the rearrangement of adhesion bonds during the deformation of the aggregate is related to the existence of a yield stress in the macroscopic constitutive equation. We compare the predictions of this new model with five experimental tests: steady shear rate, oscillatory shearing tests, stress relaxation, elastic recovery after steady prescribed deformation, and uniaxial compression tests. All of the predictions of the model are shown to agree with these experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics - Politecnico di Torino, Italy. preziosi@polito.it
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Preziosi
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ambrosi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verdier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D002449:Cell Aggregation / Q000502:physiology; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology; D002452:Cell Count; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D019245:Compressive Strength; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D004548:Elasticity / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D010969:Plastics / Q000737:chemistry; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics