Dalin Tang^*, Chun Yang^†, Tal Geva^‡,§, Pedro J. del Nido^¶

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.3, pp. 159-176, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.159

Abstract A single-layer isotropic patient-specific right/left ventricle and patch (RV/LV/Patch) combination model with fluid-structure interactions (FSI) was introduced in our previous papers to evaluate and optimize human pulmonary valve replacement/insertion (PVR) surgical procedure and patch design. In this paper, an active anisotropic model with two-layer structure for ventricle wall and tissue fiber orientation was introduced to improve previous isotropic model for more accurate assessment of RV function and potential application in PVR surgery and patch design. A material-stiffening approach was used to model active heart contraction. The computational models were used to conduct ``virtual (computational)'' surgeries and test the hypothesis that… More >

Anat Ratnovsky^∗,†, Matthew Mellema^*, Steven S. An^∗,‡, Jeffrey J. Fredberg^*, Stephanie A. Shore^*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.3, pp. 143-158, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.143

Abstract Obesity is a risk factor for asthma. The purpose of this study was to determine whether metformin, an agent used in the treatment of an obesity-related condition (type II diabetes), might have therapeutic potential for modifying the effects of obesity on airway smooth muscle (ASM) function. Metformin acts via activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a cellular sensor of energy status. In cultured murine ASM cells, metformin (0.2--2 mM) caused a dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation induced by PDGF (10^-8 M) and serotonin (10^-4 M). Another AMPK activator, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-ß-D-riboruranoside (AICAR), also inhibited PDGF-induced proliferation. Furthermore, cells treated with metformin or… More >

Wei Huang^*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.3, pp. 119-132, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.119

Abstract This work presents a tensorial description of the geometrical arrangement of the cellular molecules in the vascular endothelial cells. The geometrical arrangement of the molecules is the foundation of the mechanical properties of the molecular aggregates, which are the foundation of the physical behavior of the cells and tissues. For better studying the physical behavior of the cells and tissues, the geometrical arrangement of the cellular molecules has to be described quantitatively. In this paper, a second order molecular configuration tensor P_ij^g for fibrous protein in the cells is defined for quantitative measurement. Here, the subscripts i, j refer… More >

Judith Su^∗, Ricardo R. Brau^†, Xingyu Jiang^‡, George M. Whitesides^§, Matthew J. Lang^¶, Peter T. C. So^||

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.2, pp. 105-118, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.105

Abstract During migration, asymmetrically polarized cells achieve motion by coordinating the protrusion and retraction of their leading and trailing edges, respectively. Although it is well known that local changes in the dynamics of actin cytoskeleton remodeling drive these processes, neither the cytoskeletal rheological properties of these migrating cells are well quantified nor is it understand how these rheological properties are regulated by underlying molecular processes. In this report, we have used soft lithography to create morphologically polarized cells in order to examine rheological differences between the front and rear zone of an NIH 3T3 cell posed for migration. In addition, we… More >

Judith Su^∗, Xingyu Jiang^†, Roy Welsch^‡, George M. Whitesides^§, Peter T. C. So^¶

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.2, pp. 87-104, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.087

Abstract Interactions between the cell and the extracellular matrix regulate a variety of cellular properties and functions, including cellular rheology. In the present study of cellular adhesion, area was controlled by confining NIH 3T3 fibroblast cells to circular micropatterned islands of defined size. The shear moduli of cells adhering to islands of well defined geometry, as measured by magnetic microrheometry, was found to have a significantly lower variance than those of cells allowed to spread on unpatterned surfaces. We observe that the area of cellular adhesion influences shear modulus. Rheological measurements further indicate that cellular shear modulus is a biphasic function… More >

G.V. Norton^*, J.C. Novarini^†

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.2, pp. 75-86, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.075

Abstract Ultrasonic imaging in medical applications involves propagation and scattering of acoustic waves within and by biological tissues that are intrinsically dispersive. Analytical approaches for modeling propagation and scattering in inhomogeneous media are difficult and often require extremely simplifying approximations in order to achieve a solution. To avoid such approximations, the direct numerical solution of the wave equation via the method of finite differences offers the most direct tool, which takes into account diffraction and refraction. It also allows for detailed modeling of the real anatomic structure and combination/layering of tissues. In all cases the correct inclusion of the dispersive properties… More >

K. Y. Volokh^*, E. Y. S. Chao^†, M. Armand^‡

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.2, pp. 67-74, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.067

Abstract Information about the stress distribution on contact surfaces of adjacent bones is indispensable for analysis of arthritis, bone fracture and remodeling. Numerical solution of the contact problem based on the classical approaches of solid mechanics is sophisticated and time-consuming. However, the solution can be essentially simplified on the following physical grounds. The bone contact surfaces are covered with a layer of articular cartilage, which is a soft tissue as compared to the hard bone. The latter allows ignoring the bone compliance in analysis of the contact problem, i.e. rigid bones are considered to interact through a compliant cartilage. Moreover, cartilage… More >

Hiroshi Yamada^∗,†, Hirokazu Ando^†

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.4, No.1, pp. 1-12, 2007, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2007.004.001

Abstract We investigated the response of apical and basal actin stress fibers (SFs) and its dependency on cell confluency for endothelial cells subjected to cyclic stretching. Porcine aortic endothelial cells from the 2^nd and 5^th passages were transferred to a fibronectin-coated silicone chamber with 5000–8000 cells/cm²(isolated condition), positioning the cells apart, or with 25,000–27,000 cells/cm²(subconfluent condition), allowing cell-to-cell contact. The substrate was stretched cyclically by 0.5 Hz for 2 h with a peak strain on the substrate that was 15% in the stretch direction and –4% in the transverse direction. The actin filaments (AFs) were stained with rhodamine phalloidin and their… More >

Wendong Shi^∗,†, Xi-Qiao Feng^*, Huajian Gao^†

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.3, No.3, pp. 121-126, 2006, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2006.003.121

Abstract When pulling a vesicle adhered on a substrate, both the force-displacement profile and the maximum force at pull-off are sensitively dependent upon the substrate shape. Here we consider the adhesion between a two-dimensional vesicle and a rigid substrate via long-range molecular interactions. For a given contact area, the theoretical pull-off force of the vesicle is obtained by multiplying the theoretical strength of adhesion and the contact area. It is shown that one may design an optimal substrate shape to achieve the theoretical pull-off force. More >

Baohua Ji^*, Yonggang Huang^†

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.3, No.3, pp. 109-120, 2006, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2006.003.109

Abstract The mechanisms governing the self-assembled structure of biomolecules (single chain and bundle of chains) are studied with an AB copolymer model via the coarse grained molecular dynamics simulations. Non-local hydrophobic interaction is found to play a critical role in the pattern formation of the assembled structure of polymer chains. We show that the polymer structure could be controlled by adjusting the balance between local (short range) and non-local (long range) hydrophobic interaction which are influenced by various factors such as the sequences, chain length, stiffness, confinement, and the topology of polymers. In addition, the competition between the intrachain hydrophobic interaction… More >