Abstract
Cells sense and respond to external stimuli and properties of their environment through focal adhesion complexes (FACs) to regulate a broad range of physiological and pathological processes, including cell migration. Currently, the basic principles in mechanics of the mechanosensitivity of cell adhesion and migration have not been fully understood. In this paper, an FEM-based mechano-chemical coupling model is proposed for studying the cell migration behaviors in which the dynamics of stability of FACs and the effect of cell shape on cell traction force distribution are considered. We find that the driving force of cell migration is produced by the competition of stability of cell adhesion between the cell front and cell rear, which consequently controls the speed of cell migration. We show that the rigidity gradient of matrix can bias this competition which allows cell to exhibit a durotaxis behavior, i.e. the larger the gradient, the higher the cell speed.
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