title: Microbuckling of fibrin provides a mechanism for cell mechanosensing.
abstract: Biological cells sense and respond to mechanical forces, but how such a mechanosensing process takes place in a nonlinear inhomogeneous fibrous matrix remains unknown. We show that cells in a fibrous matrix induce deformation fields that propagate over a longer range than predicted by linear elasticity. Synthetic, linear elastic hydrogels used in many mechanotransduction studies fail to capture this effect. We develop a nonlinear microstructural finite-element model for a fibre network to simulate localized deformations induced by cells. The model captures measured cell-induced matrix displacements from experiments and identifies an important mechanism for long-range cell mechanosensing: loss of compression stiffness owing to microbuckling of individual fibres. We show evidence that cells sense each other through the formation of localized intercellular bands of tensile deformations caused by this mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA jknotbohm@wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Notbohm
authors.affiliation: Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Ayelet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lesman
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics, University of Crete, Heraklion 70013, Greece.
authors.forename: Phoebus
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rosakis
authors.affiliation: Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Tirrell
authors.affiliation: Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Guruswami
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ravichandran
mesh_terms: D016475:3T3 Cells; D000818:Animals; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000378:metabolism*; D005337:Fibrin / Q000378:metabolism*; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D005337:Fibrin
keywords: buckling; cell mechanics; fibrous matrix; three-dimensional traction force