Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 17: Focus Session: Nonlinear Dynamics in Biological Systems II (joint session DY/BP)

DY 17.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 15:00–15:15, H43

Modelling cell crawling on different substrate stiffness — Sohei Nakamura and •Mitsusuke Tarama — Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

Crawling cells sense the mechanical properties of the underlying substrate and change their dynamics accordingly. This ability called durotaxis is of great importance in various biological processes including development and homeostasis. In order to understand how intracellular chemical reactions and cellular mechanics give rise to durotaxis, we constructed a simple model from reaction diffusion equations for intracellular chemical compounds and force balance equations for the intracellular mechanics including the effect of the substrate stiffness. We found that within the model, the cell speed and diffusion coefficient change non-monotonically with the substrate stiffness, indicating the existence of an optimal substrate stiffness for migration. This non-monotonic behavior of the cell speed is consistent with experimental observations and can be understood to be caused by the competition between substrate adhesion and cell shape deformation. We further discuss cell migration on a patterned substrate.

Keywords: cell crawling; durotaxis; mechanochemical model