Fig 1.
Non-tumorigenic breast epithelial cell (MCF-10A) and its model.
a) Microscopy image of a cell with nucleus shown in blue. b) Three component cell model: cell membrane is shown in gray, nucleus is in green, the cytoskeleton is in orange with light blue, the connections between cytoskeleton and membranes are in black. Cytoskeleton network model is composed of long and stiff filaments (orange) connected by short cross-links (light blue).
Fig 2.
Micropipette aspiration experiments and simulations.
a) A representative microscopy of a cell undergoing micropipette aspiration. b) Simulation snapshot of a cell during the micropipette aspiration. c) Comparison between experimental data and simulation for micropipette aspiration, where Ln is normalized indentation length and ΔP is aspiration pressure. The gray area represents standard deviation for experimental data, standard deviation bars for simulations are omitted as they are smaller than the symbols. d) Cell viscosity, η, as a function of dissipative force parameter γ and cutoff length Rc obtained from micropipette aspiration simulations.
Fig 3.
Microfluidic experiments and simulations.
a) Microscopy image of section of the device. b) Microscopy of a MCF-10A cell squeezing between obstacles. (c-d) Simulation snapshots for a MCF-10A cell model squeezing between two diverging constrictions. Fluid particles are omitted. e) Comparison between experiments and simulations for the cell velocities, error bars represent standard deviation.
Table 1.
DPD parameters listed in the format of a/γ.
Values shaded with yellow describe interactions with Rc = 0.5 for repulsive interaction while Rc = 1 for thermostat. For dark gray, Rc = 0.5. The parameters values have been obtained from simulations.
Table 2.
List of major parameters with their values.
The source of the parameter values is in the last column. If a value is taken from literature, the reference is given. Parameters, for which values were found through simulation in Sections Cytoskeleton model and Membrane model are marked with ‡ and * symbols, respectively.
Fig 4.
Effects of cytoskeleton, nucleus and viscosity on whole cell model mechanics.
(a-c) The simulation results for the effect of the cytoskeleton filaments number density Nfil on elastic modulus (orange) and velocity (green) of small, medium and large size cells. (d) Influence of the cross-links NCL to filaments Nfil density ratio on elastic modulus (orange) and on velocity (green). (e) Influence of elastic modulus on the velocity for the case when the stiffness is changed by varying filaments density Nfil (green) or cross-links density NCL (orange). (f) Dependence of cell elastic modulus and velocity on nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio. (g) Effect of filaments number density representing chromatin inside the nucleus on cell velocity. (h) The impact of nuclear laminar properties varied using parameter in the nucleus membrane model on the cell velocity. (i) Effect of viscosity on cell velocity in microfluidic device. Error bars on all plots show standard deviation.