A Model for Stress Fiber Realignment Caused by Cytoskeletal Fluidization During Cyclic Stretching.

ABSTRACT: Uniaxial cyclic substrate stretching results in a concerted change of cytoskeletal organization such that stress fibers (SFs) realign away from the direction of stretching. Recent experiments revealed that brief transient stretch promptly ablates cellular contractile stress by means of cytoskeletal fluidization, followed by a slow stress recovery by means of resolidification. This, in turn, suggests that fluidization, resolidification and SF realignment may be linked together during stretching. We propose a mathematical model that simulates the effects of fluidization and resolidification on cytoskeletal contractile stress in order to investigate how these phenomena affect cytoskeletal realignment in response to pure uniaxial stretching of the substrate. The model comprises of individual e

SUBMITTER: Pirentis AP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3109752 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature