Nonlinear mechanics of hybrid polymer networks that mimic the complex mechanical environment of cells

Maarten Jaspers, Sarah L. Vaessen, Pim van Schayik, Dion Voerman, Alan E. Rowan () and Paul H. J. Kouwer ()
Additional contact information
Maarten Jaspers: Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials
Sarah L. Vaessen: Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials
Pim van Schayik: Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials
Dion Voerman: Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials
Alan E. Rowan: Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials
Paul H. J. Kouwer: Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The mechanical properties of cells and the extracellular environment they reside in are governed by a complex interplay of biopolymers. These biopolymers, which possess a wide range of stiffnesses, self-assemble into fibrous composite networks such as the cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix. They interact with each other both physically and chemically to create a highly responsive and adaptive mechanical environment that stiffens when stressed or strained. Here we show that hybrid networks of a synthetic mimic of biological networks and either stiff, flexible and semi-flexible components, even very low concentrations of these added components, strongly affect the network stiffness and/or its strain-responsive character. The stiffness (persistence length) of the second network, its concentration and the interaction between the components are all parameters that can be used to tune the mechanics of the hybrids. The equivalence of these hybrids with biological composites is striking.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15478 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15478

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15478

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().