adhSC

A mechanical model of a single adherent Mesenchymal Stem Cell based on the tensegrity theory. The cell, its constituents (nucleus, cytoskeleton, cytosol, and membrane) are described as particles interacting by means of contact, cable or spring. Adhesion is performed in two steps (phases):

1. the cell is generated in an elliptical configuration and spread onto the substrate
2. the cell is left in place for a sufficiently long to stabilise

Calibration and checking against experiments has been featured in the following publication:

Maxime Vassaux and Jean-Louis Milan. Stem cell mechanical behaviour modelling: substrate’s curvature influence during adhesion. Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology, 16 (2017): 1295-1308.

In case of using the model, please cite the above publication.

The model is built and simulated using the LMGC90 software written in Python. Additional scripts are provided to manage the workflow.

Execution of the model

Beforehand, LMGC90 must be installed on the machine following these instructions.

Generating the input files (DATBOX/) is done by the gen_sample.py script, and the simulation of the model by the command.py script.

All of this is made easier, by gathering common parameters to both scripts and executing them using a single bash script:

bash launcher.sh

Post-treatment of the results

Two types of results are produced:

• data stored in plain text format as .dat files, additional scripts in post/ can be found to help extract relevant information
• visualisation in .vtk are intended to be opened using software such as ParaView