Contractile filament organisation, mechanics…

Viscoelastic response of contractile filament bundles.

The actin cytoskeleton of adherent tissue cells often condenses into filament bundles contracted by myosin motors, so-called stress fibers, which play a crucial role in the mechanical interaction of cells with their environment. Stress fibers are usually attached to their environment at the endpoints, but possibly also along their whole length. We introduce a theoretical model for such contract...

Rupture mechanics of vimentin intermediate filament tetramers

Together with the globular proteins microtubules and microfilaments, intermediate filaments are one of the three major components of the cytoskeleton in eukaryotic cells. It consists of a dimeric coiled-coil building block, assembled in a very precise, hierarchical fashion into tetramers, forming filaments with characteristic dimensions on the order of several micrometers. Here we focus on the ...

Contractile Filament Stress: Comparison of Different Disease States in Man

Cardiac catheterization data on 39 patients was classified in 5 cardiovascular groups: normal, compensated volume overload, decompensated volume overload, compensated pressure overload, and congestive cardiomyopathy. Both the Lagrangian stress and contractile filament stress for the circumferential axis and the longitudinal axis were computed over a complete cardiac cycle. Contractile filament ...

The desmoplakin–intermediate filament linkage regulates cell mechanics

The translation of mechanical forces into biochemical signals plays a central role in guiding normal physiological processes during tissue development and homeostasis. Interfering with this process contributes to cardiovascular disease, cancer progression, and inherited disorders. The actin-based cytoskeleton and its associated adherens junctions are well-established contributors to mechanosens...

Neuromuscular Markers of High Performance Sport Preparation: Muscle Contractile Mechanics