Modelling Cell Shape in 3D Structured Environments: A Quantitative Comparison with Experiments

Overview

Journal PLoS Comput Biol

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 Apr 4

PMID 38574170

Authors

Rabea Link

Mona Jaggy

Martin Bastmeyer

Ulrich S Schwarz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Cell shape plays a fundamental role in many biological processes, including adhesion, migration, division and development, but it is not clear which shape model best predicts three-dimensional cell shape in structured environments. Here, we compare different modelling approaches with experimental data. The shapes of single mesenchymal cells cultured in custom-made 3D scaffolds were compared by a Fourier method with surfaces that minimize area under the given adhesion and volume constraints. For the minimized surface model, we found marked differences to the experimentally observed cell shapes, which necessitated the use of more advanced shape models. We used different variants of the cellular Potts model, which effectively includes both surface and bulk contributions. The simulations revealed that the Hamiltonian with linear area energy outperformed the elastic area constraint in accurately modelling the 3D shapes of cells in structured environments. Explicit modelling the nucleus did not improve the accuracy of the simulated cell shapes. Overall, our work identifies effective methods for accurately modelling cellular shapes in complex environments.

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