Study for the Interfacial Effect between a Crawling Cell and a Substrate on Chemotaxis

ABSTRACTChemotaxis is one of the essential mechanisms responsible for various complex biological processes. For a crawling cell, the interface between the cell and the substrate plays an important role in the chemotactic migration. This paper presents a three-dimensional dynamic model to investigate the effect of the interface between a crawling cell and a substrate on its chemotaxis. The coupled mechanisms of chemotaxis, the surface energy of the cell, and the interface between the cell and the substrate are incorporated into a diffuse interface model. Simulations reveal rich dynamics of a crawling cell associated with the interfacial condition, and confirm the high possibility of adequate predictions.