Rheological characterization of actin polymeric networks: measurement and numerical modeling

• Ano de defesa: 2015
• Autor(a) principal: Menegon, Mariana Oshima
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: biopolímeros; difusão; reologia; simulação
• Link de acesso: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/43/43134/tde-12092015-132058/

An outstanding problem of cellular mechanics is how to relate changes on the cytoskeleton which result in modifications of the viscoelastic properties of the cells. The proposal of this work is to understand the mechanical behavior of actin fibers, the major component of cytoskeleton, by means of experiments and development of a computational model that describe it, in an attempt to understand the microscopic origins of the viscoelasticity of F-actin networks. In this context, extensive scientific literature has focused on models of specific behaviors of the cytoskeleton fibers, specifically on actin filaments. However, the global question related to the cellular level remains open. In vitro actin solutions experiments were the starting point to study the mechanical behavior of the fibers. The produced experimental data was the gold standard to the numerical models that was developed to simulate the viscoelastic properties of the actin network. Thus, we built an experimental and computational framework to study the mechanical properties of the cytoskeleton, by the means of its most abundant component.