Bio-composites Based on Coral Collagen Fibers for Tissue Engineering

Biological cells apply mechanical forces in various cellular processes such as migration, differentiation and growth. When seeded in a non-linear three-dimensional fibrous matrix (e.g. fibrin gel), their rounded shape is changed and protrusions are generated by actin polymerization. These protrusions are elongated by applying mechanical forces on the fibrous matrix, which in turn apply mechanical deformations on other regions of the cell. We hypothesize that the deformation field generated in the fibrous matrix affect the development of the cell shape.

A novel Finite element model that consists of three-dimensional cell embedded in a 3D non-linear fibrous network was generated and validated with an in vitro experiments. The 3D cell geometry was generated by the geometry of a deformed biological cell acquired by confocal microscopy. Contracting forces were applied on the leading protrusion and optimized in order to calculate the matrix deformation field and test its influence on the other regions of the cell. These results can explain the evaluation of cell shape and expansion towards better understanding of different cellular processes.