title: Influence of substrate stiffness on cell-substrate interfacial adhesion and spreading: a mechano-chemical coupling model.
abstract: Cell interactions with extracellular matrix, such as cell adhesion and spreading, are crucial for many biological functions and processes. Recent experimental progresses have demonstrated that substrate rigidities exert a remarkable influence on cell-substrate interfacial adhesion and spreading behaviors. The underlying biophysical mechanism, however, remains elusive. Based on the classical Bell-Dembo's theory, this paper develops a mechano-chemical coupling model to physically describe cell adhesion and spreading mediated by substrate stiffness. By investigating the competitive nature between cell-substrate specific attraction and non-specific repulsion, the kinetic relation of receptor-ligand interplay is established, in which the influences of receptor-ligand separation, substrate elasticity and non-specific repulsion on cell adhesions are especially addressed. According to mechanical equilibrium conditions between cell membranes and underlying elastic substrates, an analytical expression is then deduced to relate the cell-substrate interfacial adhesion strength to the substrate rigidity. Moreover, by means of the conventional wetting theory, the dependence of steady-state cell spreading on substrate stiffness is also quantitatively studied. Comparisons with the existing experimental data show that the proposed model can be used to explore cell-substrate interactions regulated by substrate rigidities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China.
authors.forename: Jianyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xiaoling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Chunyang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D004548:Elasticity; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008962:Models, Theoretical
chemical_list: D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; C048022:substrate adhesion molecules