Hydrodynamic narrowing of tubes extruded from cells.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 16679410.
- Also identified by PMC identifier 1472501.
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Abstract
We discuss the pulling force f required to extrude a lipid tube from a living cell as a function of the extrusion velocity L. The main feature is membrane friction on the cytoskeleton. As recently observed for neutrophils, the tether force exhibits a "shear thinning" response over a large range of pulling velocities, which was previously interpreted by assuming viscoelastic flows of the sliding membrane. Here, we propose an alternative explanation based on purely Newtonian flow: The diameter of the tether decreases concomitantly with the increase of the membrane tension in the lipid tube. The pulling force is found to vary as L(1/3), which is consistent with reported experimental data for various types of cells.
Medical subject headings
- Cell Membrane
- Cytoskeleton
- Elasticity
- Models, Biological
- Stress, Mechanical