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| Cell motility is of enormous importance to biological functions such as wound healing [1], immune response [2], and cancer [3]. Experiments in vitro [4] shed a significant light into motility mechanisms, in particular on cells crawling on hard surfaces. They focus on the role of actomyosin and support the idea that crawling relies on a combination of actin polymerization, pushing the front of a cell forward, and myosin-induced contractile stress, retracting the rear [2]. We present a simplified physical model of a crawling cell, consisting of a droplet of active polar fluid with contractility throughout, but actin polymerization and polarization confined to a thin layer near the surface. The model shows several distinct shapes and motility regimes for spreading and crawling cells such as fried-egg and lamellipodia. Our work supports the view that cellular motility exploits autonomous physical mechanisms whose functioning does not require continuous regulations via biochemical networks.
References
[1] Basan M. et al.,Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, 2452 (2013).
[2] Bray D., Cell Movements: From Molecules to Motility, 2nd Ed., Garland, New York (2000).
[3] Poincloux R. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108, 1943 (2011).
[4] Kohler S. et al., Nat. Mat. 10, 462 (2011). |
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