Morphology and Motility of Cells on Soft Substrates

TL;DR

This paper presents a Cellular Potts Model to study how cell shape and movement are influenced by the mechanical properties of soft substrates, validated against experiments with endothelial cells on hydrogels.

Contribution

It introduces a novel computational model linking cell polarization, substrate mechanics, and migration, validated by experimental data.

Findings

Cell morphology and migration depend on substrate strain gradients.

Cell traction forces generate self-haptotactic cues affecting movement.

Model accurately predicts experimental cell behaviors.

Abstract

Recent experiments suggest that the interplay between cells and the mechanics of their substrate gives rise to a diversity of morphological and migrational behaviors. Here, we develop a Cellular Potts Model of polarizing cells on a visco-elastic substrate. We compare our model with experiments on endothelial cells plated on polyacrylamide hydrogels to constrain model parameters and test predictions. Our analysis reveals that morphology and migratory behavior are determined by an intricate interplay between cellular polarization and substrate strain gradients generated by traction forces exerted by cells (self-haptotaxis).