The homeostatic ensemble for cells
Authors
Deshpande, VS
Publication Date
2018-12Journal Title
Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology
ISSN
1617-7959
Publisher
Springer Nature
Volume
17
Issue
6
Pages
1631-1662
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Deshpande, V. (2018). The homeostatic ensemble for cells. Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, 17 (6), 1631-1662. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-018-1048-1
Abstract
Cells are quintessential examples of out of equilibrium systems but they maintain a homeostatic state over a timescale of hours to days. As a consequence, the statistics of all observables is remarkably consistent. Here, we develop a statistical mechanics framework for living cells by including the homeostatic constraint that exists over the interphase period of the cell cycle. The consequence is the introduction of the concept of a homeostatic ensemble and an associated homeostatic temperature, along with a formalism for the (dynamic) homeostatic equilibrium that intervenes to allow living cells to evade thermodynamic decay. As a first application, the framework is shown to accurately predict the observed effect of the mechanical environment on the in-vitro response of smooth muscle cells. This includes predictions that both the mean values as well as diversity/variability in the measured values of observables such as cell area, shape and tractions decrease with decreasing stiffness of the environment. Thus, we argue that the observed variabilities are inherent to the entropic nature of the homeostatic equilibrium of cells and not a result of in-vitro experimental errors.
Keywords
Cell, Cytoskeleton, Statistical mechanics, Effective temperature, Fluctuations
Sponsorship
Royal Society
Embargo Lift Date
2100-01-01
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-018-1048-1
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/286001
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