Speaker
Description
Cells sense and respond to their local environment through an integrated network of subcellular structures that convert mechanical and biochemical cues into coordinated biological responses. Understanding how these components interact to regulate cellular mechanosensing and signalling is central to controlling cell behaviour, with applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Here, we develop a bio-chemo-mechanical model that captures the formation and maturation of two key mechanosensing structures: focal adhesions (FAs) and stress fibres (SFs) in non-motile eukaryotic cells cultured in vitro. We formulate a two-dimensional axisymmetric model that couples cytoplasmic and adhesion mechanics with cell biochemistry, represented by a system of reaction-diffusion-advection equations. The model incorporates bidirectional feedback mediated by Rho signalling and explicitly includes both the plasma membrane and a stiff elastic nucleus. Our simulations demonstrate that the nucleus is a critical regulator of adhesion localisation, striation patterns, and intracellular signalling, whereas the plasma membrane exerts negligible influence. Using the model, we also show that well-adhered cells sense distant extracellular perturbations primarily through their adhesions, with a mechanosensing range spanning several cell lengths. Furthermore, we demonstrate how selective inhibition of actomyosin pathways induces targeted disassembly of distinct mechanosensing components.
