Traction force microscopy on soft elastic substrates: a guide to recent computational advances

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent computational advances in traction force microscopy on soft elastic substrates, focusing on force reconstruction methods, biophysical modeling, and practical considerations for accurate force measurement.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of computational strategies and practical issues in traction force microscopy, highlighting recent methodological improvements.

Findings

Comparison of 2D and 3D force reconstruction methods

Discussion of linear and non-linear elasticity approaches

Evaluation of software tools for force analysis

Abstract

The measurement of cellular traction forces on soft elastic substrates has become a standard tool for many labs working on mechanobiology. Here we review the basic principles and different variants of this approach. In general, the extraction of the substrate displacement field from image data and the reconstruction procedure for the forces are closely linked to each other and limited by the presence of experimental noise. We discuss different strategies to reconstruct cellular forces as they follow from the foundations of elasticity theory, including two- versus three-dimensional, inverse versus direct and linear versus non-linear approaches. We also discuss how biophysical models can improve force reconstruction and comment on practical issues like substrate preparation, image processing and the availability of software for traction force microscopy.