Study of the Mechanical Behavior of Subcellular Organelles Using a 3D Finite Element Model of the Tensegrity Structure

Abstract

A tensegrity model can be used to describe the mechanical behavior of living cells. A finite element model (FEM) was used to assess the mechanical contribution of subcellular organelles. Continuum parts like the cytoplasm and membrane were modeled as continuous elements, while the tensegrity was chosen to model the cytoskeleton and nucleoskeleton. An atomic force microscope load was implemented to simulate the external load. The cell components were loaded separately to evaluate their mechanical contributions. The analysis started with a single cytoplasm and each of the cell components was added in consecutive steps. The results showed that the cytoskeleton carried the largest part of the reaction force. The cytoplasm was the second important component of the cell’s mechanical response. It was shown that the nucleoskeleton has a stiffer structure than the membrane and cytoplasm. The cytoskeleton supported approximately 90% of the reaction force, while the cytoplasm carried 9% and the shell parts and nucleoskeleton were responsible for about 1%.

Keywords

• cell mechanics
• cell structure
• subcellular organelles
• tensegrity