Related papers: Strain-induced alignment in collagen gels
The biological function of protein assemblies was conventionally equated with a unique three-dimensional protein structure and protein-specific interactions. However, in the past 20 years it was found that some assemblies contain long…
Intermediate filaments are cytoskeletal proteins that are key regulators of cell mechanics, a role which is intrinsically tied to their hierarchical structure and their unique ability to accommodate large axial strains. However, how the…
The rigidity of elastic networks depends sensitively on their internal connectivity and the nature of the interactions between constituents. Particles interacting via central forces undergo a zero-temperature rigidity-percolation transition…
We present a model for disordered 3D fiber networks to study their linear and nonlinear elasticity over a wide range of network densities and fiber lengths. In contrast to previous 2D models, these 3D networks with binary cross-links are…
The mechanical properties of the cell depend crucially on the tension of its cytoskeleton, a biopolymer network that is put under stress by active motor proteins. While the fibrous nature of the network is known to strongly affect the…
Recent studies in mammalian hearts show that left ventricular wall thickening is an important mechanism for systolic ejection and that during contraction the cardiac muscle develops significant stresses in the muscular cross-fiber…
The semiflexible F-actin network of the cytoskeleton is cross-linked by a variety of proteins including filamin, which contain Ig-domains that unfold under applied tension. We examine a simple semiflexible network model cross-linked by such…
Live cells have ambiguous mechanical properties. They were often described as either elastic solids or viscoelastic fluids and have recently been classified as soft glassy materials characterized by weak power-law rheology. Nonlinear…
We present a theory for the elasticity of cross-linked stiff polymer networks. Stiff polymers, unlike their flexible counterparts, are highly anisotropic elastic objects. Similar to mechanical beams stiff polymers easily deform in bending,…
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…
Hydrogels of semiflexible biopolymers such as collagen have been shown to contract axially under shear strain, in contrast to the axial dilation observed for most elastic materials. Recent work has shown that this behavior can be understood…
Elastic network models, simple structure-based representations of biomolecules where atoms interact via short-range harmonic potentials, provide great insight into a molecule's internal dynamics and mechanical properties at extremely low…
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…
Collagen remodeling in living tissues exhibits anisotropic orientation patterns commonly described by Von Mises distributions, yet the physical origin of such nonequilibrium organization remains unresolved. In the present work, we…
Soft biological tissues exhibit a remarkable resilience to large mechanical loads, a property which is associated with the strain stiffening capability of the biopolymer networks that structurally support the tissues. Yet, recent studies…
The mechanical properties of biological tissues are strongly correlated to the specific distribution of their collagen fibers. Monitoring the dynamic reorganization of the collagen network during mechanical stretching is however a technical…
Computer simulations can aid in understanding how collective materials properties emerge from interactions between simple constituents. Here, we introduce a coarse-grained model that enables simulation of networks of actin filaments, myosin…
Analyzing nonlinear conformational relaxation dynamics in elastic networks corresponding to two classical motor proteins, we find that they respond by well-defined internal mechanical motions to various initial deformations and that these…
Materials driven far from equilibrium can encode memories of past deformations through long-lived structural reorganisations. Such memory effects-reflecting parameters such as deformation direction, magnitude, and duration have been widely…
Fiber-reinforcement is a universal feature of many biological tissues. It involves the interplay between fiber stiffness, fiber orientation, and the elastic properties of the matrix, influencing pattern formation and evolution in layered…