"Active" drops as phantom models for living cells: a mesoscopic particle-based approach

Modeling Living Cells Response to Surface Tension and Chemical Patterns

Mechanobiology is an important epigenetic factor. It influences cell functioning and bears on gene induction, protein synthesis, cell growth, and differentiation. In the presence of patterned chemical cues, living cells can take shapes that are far from that of a drop of fluid. These shapes are characterized by inward curvatures that are pinned at the points of location of the cues. The mechanochemical interactions that orchestrate cell behavior is simulated and controlled by modeling the cells as made by parcels of fluid. Cells become drops that are then endowed with the presence of additional forces, generated on the fly, that effectively make them active. With the proper choice of the forces, the phenomena that emerge from the dynamics match quantitatively the experiments. A combination of hydrophilic and lipophilic forces acting between the beads of fluid allows the active drop to respond to patterned cues and form squares, pentagons, hexagons, and flowers, just as living cells do.