Related papers: Mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake in skeletal muscle healt…
In living cells, oscillation of the concentration of cytosolic Ca2+ is an important and pervasive signal for the intercellular and intracellular information conduction. To generate the oscillation, the hydrolysis of ATP is always needed.…
Calcium (Ca2+) plays a central role in mediating both contractile function and hypertrophic signalling in ventricular cardiomyocytes. L-type Ca2+ channels trigger release of Ca2+ from ryanodine receptors (RyRs) for cellular contraction,…
The ability of cells to sense and respond to the mechanical properties of their environments is fundamental to a range of cellular behaviours, with substrate stiffness increasingly being found to be a key signalling factor. Although active…
We revisit here the mathematical model for ATP production in mitochondria introduced recently by Bertram, Pedersen, Luciani, and Sherman (BPLS) as a simplification of the more complete but intricate Magnus and Keizer's model. We identify…
During contraction the energy of muscle tissue increases due to energy from the hydrolysis of ATP. This energy is distributed across the tissue as strain-energy potentials in the contractile elements, strain-energy potential from the 3D…
The neuron consumes energy from ATP hydrolysis to maintain a far-from-equilibrium steady state inside the cell, thus all physiological functions inside the cell are modulated by thermodynamics. The neurons that manage information encoding,…
Living cells respond to spatial signals. Signal transmission to the cell interior often involves the release of second messengers like $Ca^{2+}$ . They will eventually trigger a physiological response by activating kinases that in turn…
The abnormal aggregation of extracellular amyloid-$\beta$ (A\beta) in senile plaques resulting in calcium (Ca^{+2}) dyshomeostasis is one of the primary symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Significant research efforts have been devoted in…
The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascade, an evolutionarily conserved motif present in all eukaryotic cells, is involved in coordinating critical cell-fate decisions, regulating protein synthesis, and mediating learning…
We study the high-frequency micro-mechanical response of suspensions composed by cardiac and skeletal muscle myosin by optical trapping interferometry. We observe that in low ionic strength solutions upon the addition of magnesium adenosine…
In this paper we report, clarify and broaden various recent efforts to complement the chemistry-centered models of force generation in muscles by mechanics-centered models. The physical mechanisms of interest can be grouped into two…
Red blood cells (RBCs) are a major component of blood clots, which form physiologically as a response to injury or pathologically in thrombosis. The active participation of RBCs in thrombus solidification has been previously proposed but…
Cells use biochemical networks to translate environmental information into intracellular responses. These responses can be highly dynamic, but how the information is encoded in these dynamics remains poorly understood. Here we investigate…
Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) is the nearly ubiquitous "energy currency" of living organisms, and thus is a crucial participant in the majority of enzymatic reactions. The standard models in enzyme kinetics generally ignore the temporal…
Biological cells are able to adapt their behaviour in response to environmental cues. Durotaxis is a phenomenon in which cells adjust their migration depending on the mechanical properties of a surrounding substrate. Although durotaxis has…
Background: Mechanotransduction in bone cells plays a pivotal role in osteoblast differentiation and bone remodelling. Mechanotransduction provides the link between modulation of the extracellular matrix and intracellular actions. By…
A living cell senses its environment and responds to external signals. In this work, we study theoretically, the precision at which cells can determine the position of a spatially localized transient extracellular signal. To this end, we…
The cytoskeletal component actomyosin is a canonical example of active matter since the powerstroke cycle locally converts chemical energy in the form of adenoside triphosphate (ATP) into mechanical work for remodelling. Observing myosin II…
The actin cortex is a thin layer of actin, myosin, and actin binding proteins that underlies the membrane of most animal cells. It is highly dynamic and can undergo remodelling on time-scales of tens of seconds thanks to protein turnover…
Based on a thermodynamic analysis of the kinetic model for the protein phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle, we study the ATP (or GTP) energy utilization of this ubiquitous biological signal transduction process. It is shown that the…