scholarly journals Pre-stress of actin cortices is important for the viscoelastic response of living cells

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Cordes ◽  
Hannes Witt ◽  
Aina Gallemí-Pérez ◽  
Bastian Brückner ◽  
Florian Grimm ◽  
...  

Shape, dynamics, and viscoelastic properties of eukaryotic cells are primarily governed by a thin, reversibly cross-linked actomyosin cortex located directly beneath the plasma membrane. We obtain time-dependent rheological responses of fibroblasts and MDCK II cells from deformation-relaxation curves using an atomic force microscope to access the dependence of cortex fluidity on pre-stress. We introduce a viscoelastic model that treats the cell as a composite shell and assumes that relaxation of the cortex follows a power law giving access to cortical pre-stress, area compressibility modulus, and the power law (fluidity) exponent. Cortex fluidity is modulated by interfering with myosin activity. We find that the power law exponent of the cell cortex decreases with increasing intrinsic pre-stress and area compressibility modulus, in accordance with previous finding for isolated actin networks subject to external stress. Extrapolation to zero tension returns the theoretically predicted power law exponent for transiently cross-linked polymer networks. In contrast to the widely used Hertzian mechanics, our model provides viscoelastic parameters independent of indenter geometry and compression velocity.

2004 ◽  
Vol 287 (3) ◽  
pp. C603-C611 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Yanai ◽  
J. P. Butler ◽  
T. Suzuki ◽  
H. Sasaki ◽  
H. Higuchi

Intracellular rheology is a useful probe of the mechanisms underlying spontaneous or chemotactic locomotion and transcellular migration of leukocytes. We characterized regional rheological differences between the leading, body, and trailing regions of isolated, adherent, and spontaneously locomoting human neutrophils. We optically trapped intracellular granules and measured their displacement for 500 ms after a 100-nm step change in the trap position. Results were analyzed in terms of simple viscoelasticity and with the use of structural damping (stress relaxation follows a power law in time). Structural damping fit the data better than did viscoelasticity. Regional viscoelastic stiffness and viscosity or structural damping storage and loss moduli were all significantly lower in leading regions than in pooled body and/or trailing regions (the latter were not significantly different). Structural damping showed similar levels of elastic and dissipative stresses in body and/or trailing regions; leading regions were significantly more fluidlike (increased power law exponent). Cytoskeletal disruption with cytochalasin D or nocodazole made body and/or trailing regions ∼50% less elastic and less viscous. Cytochalasin D completely suppressed pseudopodial formation and locomotion; nocodazole had no effect on leading regions. Neither drug changed the dissipation-storage energy ratio. These results differ from those of studies of neutrophils and other cell types probed at the cell membrane via β2-integrin receptors, which suggests a distinct role for the cell cortex or focal adhesion complexes. We conclude that 1) structural damping well describes intracellular rheology, and 2) while not conclusive, the significantly more fluidlike behavior of the leading edge supports the idea that intracellular pressure may be the origin of motive force in neutrophil locomotion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 866-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swagat Patnaik ◽  
Basudev Biswal ◽  
Dasika Nagesh Kumar ◽  
Bellie Sivakumar

2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy T. Clark ◽  
Ye Zhou

The Richtmyer-Meshkov mixing layer is initiated by the passing of a shock over an interface between fluid of differing densities. The energy deposited during the shock passage undergoes a relaxation process during which the fluctuational energy in the flow field decays and the spatial gradients of the flow field decrease in time. This late stage of Richtmyer-Meshkov mixing layers is studied from the viewpoint of self-similarity. Analogies with weakly anisotropic turbulence suggest that both the bubble-side and spike-side widths of the mixing layer should evolve as power-laws in time, with the same power-law exponent and virtual time origin for both sides. The analogy also bounds the power-law exponent between 2∕7 and 1∕2. It is then shown that the assumption of identical power-law exponents for bubbles and spikes yields fits that are in good agreement with experiment at modest density ratios.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Prakash ◽  
S. Gouse Mohiddin ◽  
S. Vijaya Kumar Varma

A numerical study of buoyancy-driven unsteady natural convection boundary layer flow past a vertical cone embedded in a non-Darcian isotropic porous regime with transverse magnetic field applied normal to the surface is considered. The heat and mass flux at the surface of the cone is modeled as a power law according to qwx=xm and qw*(x)=xm, respectively, where x denotes the coordinate along the slant face of the cone. Both Darcian drag and Forchheimer quadratic porous impedance are incorporated into the two-dimensional viscous flow model. The transient boundary layer equations are then nondimensionalized and solved by the Crank-Nicolson implicit difference method. The velocity, temperature, and concentration fields have been studied for the effect of Grashof number, Darcy number, Forchheimer number, Prandtl number, surface heat flux power-law exponent (m), surface mass flux power-law exponent (n), Schmidt number, buoyancy ratio parameter, and semivertical angle of the cone. Present results for selected variables for the purely fluid regime are compared with the published results and are found to be in excellent agreement. The local skin friction, Nusselt number, and Sherwood number are also analyzed graphically. The study finds important applications in geophysical heat transfer, industrial manufacturing processes, and hybrid solar energy systems.


1998 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Harris ◽  
M. Menabde ◽  
A. Seed ◽  
G. Austin

Abstract. The theory of scale similarity and breakdown coefficients is applied here to intermittent rainfall data consisting of time series and spatial rain fields. The probability distributions (pdf) of the logarithm of the breakdown coefficients are the principal descriptor used. Rain fields are distinguished as being either multiscaling or multiaffine depending on whether the pdfs of breakdown coefficients are scale similar or scale dependent, respectively. Parameter  estimation techniques are developed which are applicable to both multiscaling and multiaffine fields. The scale parameter (width), σ, of the pdfs of the log-breakdown coefficients is a measure of the intermittency of a field. For multiaffine fields, this scale parameter is found to increase with scale in a power-law fashion consistent with a bounded-cascade picture of rainfall modelling. The resulting power-law exponent, H, is indicative of the smoothness of the field. Some details of breakdown coefficient analysis are addressed and a theoretical link between this analysis and moment scaling analysis is also presented. Breakdown coefficient properties of cascades are also investigated in the context of parameter estimation for modelling purposes.


Author(s):  
Jack Merrin

1AbstractAn automated statistical and error analysis of 45 countries or regions with more than 1000 cases of COVID-19 as of March 28, 2020, has been performed. This study reveals differences in the rate of disease spreading rate over time in different countries. This survey observes that most countries undergo a beginning exponential growth phase, which transitions into a power-law phase, as recently suggested by Ziff and Ziff. Tracking indicators of growth, such as the power-law exponent, are a good indication of the relative danger different countries are in and show when social measures are effective towards slowing the spread. The data compiled here are usefully synthesizing a global picture, identifying country to country variation in spreading, and identifying countries most at risk. This analysis may factor into how best to track the effectiveness of social distancing policies and quarantines in real-time as data is updated each day.


2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (10) ◽  
pp. 5635
Author(s):  
Guo Jin-Li ◽  
Wang Li-Na

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 583-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Dereich ◽  
Christian Mönch ◽  
Peter Mörters

We show that in preferential attachment models with power-law exponent τ ∈ (2, 3) the distance between randomly chosen vertices in the giant component is asymptotically equal to (4 + o(1))log log N / (-log(τ − 2)), where N denotes the number of nodes. This is twice the value obtained for the configuration model with the same power-law exponent. The extra factor reveals the different structure of typical shortest paths in preferential attachment graphs.


2011 ◽  
Vol 52-54 ◽  
pp. 1895-1900
Author(s):  
Jing Zhu ◽  
Lian Cun Zheng ◽  
Xue Hui Chen

A similarity analysis is performed for a steady laminar boundary layer stagnation-point flow of an electrically conducting fluid in a porous medium subject to a transverse non-uniform magnetic field past a non-linear stretching sheet. A scaling group of transformations is applied to get the invariants. Using the invariants, a third order ordinary differential equation corresponding to the momentum is obtained. We show the existence and uniqueness of convex and concave solutions for the power law exponent, according to the values of magnetic parameter, permeability parameter and velocity ratio parameter.


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