Related papers: Mechanical model for a collagen fibril pair in ext…
Collagen is the most abundant structural protein in animals, forming hierarchically organised fibrils that provide mechanical support to tissues. Despite detailed structural studies, the physical principles that govern the formation of the…
We present a fiber-distributed model of the reinforcing collagen of the human cornea. The model describes the basic connections between the components of the tissue by defining an elementary block (cell) and upscaling it to the physical…
In articular cartilage the orientation of collagen fibres is not uniform, varying mostly with the depth on the tissue. Besides, the biomechanical response of each layer of the articular cartilage differs from the neighbouring ones, evolving…
Biological cells embedded in fibrous matrices have been observed to form inter-cellular bands of dense and aligned fibers, through which they mechanically interact over long distances. Such matrix-mediated cellular interactions have been…
The predominant structural protein in vertebrates is collagen, which plays a key role in extracellular matrix and connective tissue mechanics. Despite its prevalence and physical importance in biology, the mechanical properties of molecular…
Collagen is the most abundant extracellular-network-forming protein in animal biology and is important in both natural and artificial tissues, where it serves as a material of great mechanical versatility. This versatility arises from its…
Mammalian tissues contain networks and ordered arrays of collagen fibrils originating from the periodic self-assembly of helical 300 nm long tropocollagen complexes. The fibril radius is typically between 25 to 250 nm, and tropocollagen at…
Collagen fibrils are the building block of many biological tissues, which viability depend on the fibrils properties. Altered properties of collagen fibrils are central to the appearance of many diseases, while physiological or native…
The primary building block of the body is collagen, which is found in the extracellular matrix and in many stress-bearing tissues such as tendon and cartilage. It provides elasticity and support to cells and tissues while influencing…
In solid tumors, cells constantly interact with the surrounding extracellular matrix. In particular cancer-associated fibroblasts modulate the architecture of the matrix by exerting forces and contracting collagen fibres, creating paths…
Cellular contractility, migration, and extracellular matrix (ECM) mechanics are critical for a wide range of biological processes including embryonic development, wound healing, tissue morphogenesis, and regeneration. Even though the…
Collagen networks provide the main structural component of most tissues and represent an important ingredient for bio-mimetic materials for bio-medical applications. Here we study the mechanical properties of stiff collagen networks derived…
Collagen fibrils are the most important structural component of tendons. Their crimped structure and parallel arrangement within the tendon lead to a distinctive non-linear stress-strain curve when a tendon is stretched. Microstructural…
The lysyl oxidase (LOX) enzyme that catalyses cross-link formation during the assembly of collagen fibrils in vivo is too large to diffuse within assembled fibrils, and so is incompatible with a fully equilibrium mechanism for fibril…
Advanced-Glycation-Endproducts (AGEs) are known to be a major cause of impaired tissue material properties. In collagen fibrils, the main building component of human tissue, these AGEs appear as fibrillar cross-links. When AGEs accumulate…
The mineralized collagen fibril is the main building block of hard tissues and it directly affects the macroscopic mechanics of biological tissues such as bone. The mechanical behavior of the fibril itself is determined by its structure:…
Contractile forces exerted on the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) lead to the alignment and stretching of constituent fibers within the vicinity of cells. As a consequence, the matrix reorganizes to form thick bundles of aligned…
Protrusions at the leading-edge of a cell play an important role in sensing the extracellular cues, during cellular spreading and motility. Recent studies provided indications that these protrusions wrap (coil) around the extra-cellular…
We propose a three dimensional mechanical model of embryonic tissue dynamics. Mechanically coupled adherent cells are represented as particles interconnected with elastic beams which can exert non-central forces and torques. Tissue…
Cell migration in fibreous extracellular matrix (ECM) is crucial to many physiological and pathological processes such as tissue regeneration, immune response and cancer progression. During migration, individual cells can generate active…