ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2021
Cells exploit a phase transition to mechanically remodel the fibrous extracellular matrix.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Multiscale modelling shows how cell-ECM interactions impact ECM fibre alignment and cell detachment.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Fiber recruitment drives a phase transition of cell polarization at a critical cell spacing in matrix-mediated tissue remodeling.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Compressive instabilities enable cell-induced extreme densification patterns in the fibrous extracellular matrix: Discrete model predictions.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Unexpected softening of a fibrous matrix by contracting inclusions.Acta biomaterialia · 2024Article
- Modeling the extracellular matrix in cell migration and morphogenesis: a guide for the curious biologist.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Modeling collagen fibril self-assembly from extracellular medium in embryonic tendon.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Effect of hyaluronic acid on microscale deformations of collagen gels.Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials · 2022Article
- Collagen fibril assembly: New approaches to unanswered questions.Matrix biology plus · 2021Article
- Effect of matrix heterogeneity on cell mechanosensing.Soft matter · 2021Article
- Percolation of collagen stress in a random network model of the alveolar wall.Scientific reports · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Through mechanical forces, biological cells remodel the surrounding collagen network, generating striking deformation patterns. Tethers-tracts of high densification and fibre alignment-form between cells, thinner bands emanate from cell clusters. While tethers facilitate cell migration and communication, how they form is unclear. Combining modelling, simulation and experiment, we show that tether formation is a densification phase transition of the extracellular matrix, caused by buckling instability of network fibres under cell-induced compression, featuring unexpected similarities with martensitic microstructures. Multiscale averaging yields a two-phase, bistable continuum energy landscape for fibrous collagen, with a densified/aligned second phase. Simulations predict strain discontinuities between the undensified and densified phase, which localizes within tethers as experimentally observed. In our experiments, active particles induce similar localized patterns as cells. This shows how cells exploit an instability to mechanically remodel the extracellular matrix simply by contracting, thereby facilitating mechanosensing, invasion and metastasis.
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