Cellular force signal integration through vector logic gates.

Abstract

The multi-signal mechanical environment mammalian cells experience is often unaccounted for in current mechanical stimulation studies. To address this we developed a novel technique to induce dual integrated force inputs, uniaxial stretch and fluid shear stress and present here for the first time a vector logic-gate framework to characterize cellular response as a function of cytoskeletal reorganization. Using this framework we found that under fluid shear stress and uniaxial stretch NIH 3T3 fibroblasts responded by the Stretch OR Shear vector logic-gate and HUVECs responded by the NOT Stretch OR Shear vector logic-gate. We further developed a parsimonious model of cellular response to multiple mechanical stimuli, which provides a unifying model that captured the experimental response of both cell types.