Related papers: Intercellular contact is sufficient to drive Fibro…
In healthy hearts myocytes are typically coupled to nearest neighbours through gap junctions. Under pathological conditions such as fibrosis, or in scar tissue, or across ablation lines myocytes can uncouple from their neighbours.…
Cellular organization and mechanotransduction pathways are crucial regulators of tissue morphogenesis, whereas their dysregulation contributes to pathologies. Overactive myofibroblasts are key drivers of fibrosis, yet how their presence…
Directed fibroblast migration is central to highly proliferative processes in regenerative medicine and developmental biology, such as wound healing and embryogenesis. However, the mechanisms by which single fibroblasts affect each other's…
We report the phenomenon of periodic shape oscillations occurring in 3T3 fibroblasts merely as a consequence of a loss of cell-substrate adhesion. The oscillatory behavior can last many hours at a constant frequency, and can be switched off…
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…
Biological cells sense and respond to mechanical forces, but how such a mechanosensing proccess takes place in a nonlinear inhomogeneous fibrous matrix remains unknown. We show that cells in a fibrous matrix induce deformation fields that…
Connecting cell behavior to tissue shape and mechanics is a key challenge in the physics of morphogenesis. Cytoskeletal turnover precludes a fixed reference state, and tensions are actively generated independently of strain; so conventional…
Living tissue is able to withstand large stresses in everyday life, yet it also actively adapts to dynamic loads. This remarkable mechanical behaviour emerges from the interplay between living cells and their non-living extracellular…
The electrical coupling between myocytes and fibroblasts and the spacial distribution of fibroblasts within myocardial tissues are significant factors in triggering and sustaining cardiac arrhythmias but their roles are poorly understood.…
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…
Tissue fibrosis is the phenomenon that a tissue has progressive deposition of collagen fibers with age. Tissue fibrosis is associated with aging of most of our organs, and it is the main pathology in arteriosclerosis, chronic…
Effective wound repair treatments rely on a clear picture of how cell proliferation and migration are coordinated during tissue restoration. Fibroblasts are key contributors to tissue restoration in the dermis, and modern imaging tools…
Through mechanical forces, biological cells remodel the surrounding collagen network, generating striking deformation patterns. Tethers-tracts of high densification and fiber alignment-form between cells, thinner bands emanate from cell…
Under many physiological and pathological conditions such as division and migration, cells undergo dramatic deformations, under which their mechanical integrity is supported by cytoskeletal networks (i.e. intermediate filaments, F-actin,…
Mechanical forces influence the development and behavior of biological tissues. In many situations these forces are exerted or resisted by elastic compliant structures such as the own-tissue cellular matrix or other surrounding tissues.…
The motility of eukaryotic cells is strongly influenced by their environment, with confined cells often developing qualitatively different motility patterns from those migrating on simple two-dimensional substrates. Recent experiments,…
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…
We present systematic numerical studies of electrical-wave propagation in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) mathematical models, for human, ventricular tissue with myocyte cells that are attached (a) regularly and (b) randomly…
Epithelia form protective barriers in multicellular organisms. To maintain homeostasis, they must be able to regenerate and heal damaged areas. This occurs through collective cell migration, during which finger-like protrusions commonly…
Stiff and dense fibrin networks in chronic blood clots impede drug penetration and distribution into the clot core, limiting the efficacy of thrombolytic therapies. Acoustic cavitation of microbubbles is a promising strategy to enhance drug…