Issue 47, 2022

The nonlinear motion of cells subject to external forces

Abstract

To develop a minimal model for a cell moving in a crowded environment such as in tissue, we investigate the response of a liquid drop of active matter moving on a flat rigid substrate to forces applied at its boundaries. We consider two different self-propulsion mechanisms, active stresses and treadmilling polymerisation, and we investigate how the active drop motion is altered by these surface forces. We find a highly non-linear response to forces that we characterise using drop velocity, drop shape, and the traction between the drop and the substrate. Each self-propulsion mechanism gives rise to two main modes of motion: a long thin drop with zero traction in the bulk, mostly occurring under strong stretching forces, and a parabolic drop with finite traction in the bulk, mostly occurring under strong squeezing forces. In each case there is a sharp transition between parabolic, and long thin drops as a function of the applied forces and indications of drop break-up where large forces stretch the drop.

Graphical abstract: The nonlinear motion of cells subject to external forces

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Jul 2022
Accepted
04 Nov 2022
First published
10 Nov 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2022,18, 9008-9016

The nonlinear motion of cells subject to external forces

A. Ioratim-Uba, A. Loisy, S. Henkes and T. B. Liverpool, Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 9008 DOI: 10.1039/D2SM00934J

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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