Abstract
Cell shape is known to have profound effects on a number of cell behaviors. In this paper we have studied the role of cell shape in cell migration through modeling its effect on cell traction force distribution, traction force dependent stability of cell adhesion and matrix rigidity dependent traction force formation. To quantify the driving force of cell migration, a new parameter called the motility factor, that takes account of the effect of cell shape, matrix rigidity and dynamic stability of cell adhesion, is proposed. We found that the motility factor depends on the matrix rigidity in a biphasic manner, in consistence with the experimental observations of the biphasic dependence of cell migration speed on the matrix rigidity. We showed that the cell shape plays a pivotal role in the cell migration behavior by regulating the traction force at the cell front and rear. The larger the cell polarity, the larger the motility factor is. The keratocyte-like shape has a larger motility factor than the fibroblast-like shape, which explains why keratocyte has a much higher migration speed. The motility factor might be an appropriate parameter for a quantitative description of the driving force of cell migration.
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