Cell-induced wrinkling patterns on soft substrates

TL;DR

This paper presents a mechanical model for cell-induced wrinkling on soft substrates, predicting pattern formation and scaling laws, and validates these predictions against experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled elastic and phase-field model to describe how cellular forces induce specific wrinkling patterns on compliant surfaces.

Findings

Predicts transitions between radial, circumferential, and anisotropic wrinkles.

Provides scaling relations for wrinkle wavelength and amplitude.

Shows good agreement with experimental observations.

Abstract

Cells exert traction forces on compliant substrates and can induce surface instabilities that appear as characteristic wrinkling patterns. Here, we develop a mechanical description of cell-induced wrinkling on soft substrates using a thin film elastic framework based on the F\"{o}ppl-von K\'{a}rm\'{a}n equations coupled to a phase-field model of a single cell. We model in-plane contractile stresses driven by cellular activity and study how their magnitude, spatial distribution, and symmetry determine the onset of wrinkling and the resulting pattern selection. The theory predicts transitions between distinct morphologies, such as radial, circumferential, and anisotropic wrinkle arrangements, and provides scaling relations for wrinkle wavelength and amplitude as functions of elastic parameters and imposed cellular forcing. We compare these predictions with available experimental observations of cell-driven wrinkling on compliant gels and find good agreement for both qualitative pattern classes and quantitative wavelength trends. Our results offer a minimal modelling framework to interpret wrinkling assays and connect observed surface patterns to underlying cellular forces.