Theory of the mechanical response of focal adhesions to shear flow.

The response of cells to shear flow is primarily determined by the asymmetry of the external forces and moments that are sensed by each member of a focal adhesion pair connected by a contractile stress fiber. In the theory presented here, we suggest a physical model in which each member of such a pair of focal adhesions is treated as an elastic body subject to both a myosin-activated contractile force and the shear stress induced by the external flow. The elastic response of a focal adhesion complex is much faster than the active cellular processes that determine the size of the associated focal adhesions and the direction of the complex relative to the imposed flow. Therefore, the complex attains its mechanical equilibrium configuration which may change because of the cellular activity. Our theory is based on the experimental observation that focal adhesions modulate their cross-sectional area in order to attain an optimal shear. Using this assumption, our elastic model shows that such a complex can passively change its orientation to align parallel to the direction of the flow.

The cellular response to curvature-induced stress.

We present a theoretical model to explain recent observations of the orientational response of cells to unidirectional curvature. Experiments show that some cell types when plated on a rigid cylindrical surface tend to reorient their shape and stress fibers along the axis of the cylinder, while others align their stress fibers perpendicular to that axis. Our model focuses on the competition of the shear stress--that results from cell adhesion and active contractility--and the anisotropic bending stiffness of the stress fibers. We predict the cell orientation angle that results from the balance of these two forces in a mechanical equilibrium. The conditions under which the different experimental observations can be obtained are discussed in terms of the theory.