On a poroviscoelastic model for cell crawling (Q2512924)

The authors use an upper-convected Maxwell model to demonstrate that even the simplest of two-phase viscoelastic models satisfactorily describe cell motility, catching essential features. More precisely, they formulate a one-dimensional two-phase reactive, poroviscoelastic model for a cell crawling on a flat substrate. Using a potential hodograph transformation, a destabilizing effect of the contraction of the network is demonstrated. A linear stability analysis reveals that the traveling strip polarizes and starts to move in response to a small perturbation only if the perturbation breaks the symmetry of the network volume fraction or network stress. It is also shown that parameters should be chosen carefully as some parameter regimes lead to ill-posed problems. Numerical simulations display initial transients that decay to reveal a traveling wave solution that has the biologically observed high actin volume fraction at the rear, retrograde flow of network and reasonable profiles for the force exerted on the substrate. The model also displays the biologically observed bell-shaped dependence of velocity on adhesion strength. Since the model disagrees with experimentally observed results in its prediction of low network volume fraction at the front of the traveling strip, it is argued that the actin volume fraction at the cell front is likely to be corrected by the inclusion of biochemical signalling, promoting polymerization of the actin network near the front of the traveling strip.