Mechanics-Based Models to Predict the Alignment of Cells on a Cyclically Stretched Substrate

As pointed out by numerous experiments, the cell cytoskeleton appears to be responsive to external mechanical stimuli. In particular, experimental evidence demonstrates that a population of cells adhering to a substrate which is deformed periodically, for instance to mimic the heartbeat, responds to the strain by reorienting their stress fibres and focal adhesions. At the end of such a process, the cell achieves a specific orientation with respect to the strain direction, and such orientation depends on the characteristics of the external strain. The increasing interest in understanding mechanotransduction phenomena led to a growing attention to the cell realignment behaviour, both from the experimental and from the modelling point of view. Indeed, the contribution of mathematical models turns out to be very important to elucidate some relevant mechanisms and to suggest possible improvements in experimental assays. In this Chapter, we present an overview of mechanics-based mathematical models that have been proposed to describe cell reorientation and we highlight connections among the different research contributions within this field.