Mechanosensitive bonds induced complex cell motility patterns

TL;DR

This theoretical study models how varying levels of mechanosensitivity in cell adhesion complexes influence cell motility patterns, revealing transitions from steady movement to oscillatory and back-and-forth crawling behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified active gel model that links mechanosensitive adhesion dynamics to diverse cell motility patterns, providing a qualitative explanation for experimental observations.

Findings

Weak mechanosensitivity leads to constant velocity movement.

Increased mechanosensitivity causes stick-slip motion.

High mechanosensitivity results in periodic back-and-forth migration.

Abstract

The one-dimensional crawling movement of a cell is considered in this theoretical study. Our active gel model shows that for a cell with weakly mechanosensitive adhesion complexes, as myosin contractility increases, a cell starts to move at a constant velocity. As the mechanosensitivity of the adhesion complexes increases, a cell can exhibit stick-slip motion. Finally, a cell with highly mechanosensitive adhesion complexes exhibits periodic back-and-forth migration. A simplified model which assumes that the cell crawling dynamics are controlled by the evolution of the myosin density dipole and the asymmetry of adhesion complex distribution captures the motility behaviors of crawling cells qualitatively. It suggests that the complex cell crawling behaviors observed in the experiments could result from the interplay between the distribution of contractile force and mechanosensitive bonds.