Title :
Continuum model of actin-myosin flow
Author :
Nikmaneshi, Mohammad Reza ; Firoozabadi, Bahar ; Saidi, Mohamad Said
Author_Institution :
Center of Excellence in Energy Conversion, Sharif Univ. of Technol., Tehran, Iran
Abstract :
The front part of a cell is divided to two regions called lamellum and lamellipodium (lamellipodial). This part plays an essential role for cell migration. Indeed, there are many protein filaments called actin in lamellum and lamellipodium, which induce the cell motion with polymerization in the leading edge of the cell. The actin filaments adhere to the extracellular matrix (ECM) by means of focal adhesions and they have contact by myosin motor proteins. The myosin motor proteins cause actin retrograde and anterograde flow exerted contractile stress on them. The focal adhesions exert frictional stress on the actin filaments. In this work, we developed a two-dimensional continuum model of the fan-shaped lamellipodial to obtain the actin retrograde flow. In addition, the actin filaments are assumed as a highly viscous Newtonian fluid. We also investigated the effects of the myosin distribution and cell speed on the actin flow.
Keywords :
adhesion; biomechanics; cell motility; friction; molecular biophysics; physiological models; proteins; viscosity; ECM; actin filaments; actin retrograde flow; actin-myosin flow; cell migration; cell motion; cell speed; contractile stress; extracellular matrix; fan-shaped lamellipodial; focal adhesion; frictional stress; lamellipodium; lamellum; myosin distribution; myosin motor proteins; polymerization; protein filaments; two-dimensional continuum model; viscous Newtonian fluid; Adhesives; Biological system modeling; Equations; Fluids; Mathematical model; Proteins; Stress; actin network; anterograde flow; focal adhesion; lamellipodial; myosin motor protein; retrograde flow;
Conference_Titel :
Biomedical Engineering (ICBME), 2013 20th Iranian Conference on
Conference_Location :
Tehran
DOI :
10.1109/ICBME.2013.6782200
