Biomechanics of single cortical neurons
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Author(s)
Bernick, Kristin B.
Prevost, Thibault P.
Suresh, Subra
Socrate, Simona
Date Issued
December 2010
Journal
Acta Biomaterialia
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Bernick, Kristin B., Thibault P. Prevost, Subra Suresh, and Simona Socrate. “Biomechanics of Single Cortical Neurons.” Acta Biomaterialia 7, no. 3 (March 2011): 1210–1219.
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Author's final manuscript
Abstract
This study presents experimental results and computational analysis of the large strain dynamic behavior of single neurons in vitro with the objective of formulating a novel quantitative framework for the biomechanics of cortical neurons. Relying on the atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique, novel testing protocols are developed to enable the characterization of neural soma deformability over a range of indentation rates spanning three orders of magnitude, 10, 1, and 0.1 μm s[superscript −1]. Modified spherical AFM probes were utilized to compress the cell bodies of neonatal rat cortical neurons in load, unload, reload and relaxation conditions. The cell response showed marked hysteretic features, strong non-linearities, and substantial time/rate dependencies. The rheological data were complemented with geometrical measurements of cell body morphology, i.e. cross-diameter and height estimates. A constitutive model, validated by the present experiments, is proposed to quantify the mechanical behavior of cortical neurons. The model aimed to correlate empirical findings with measurable degrees of (hyper)elastic resilience and viscosity at the cell level. The proposed formulation, predicated upon previous constitutive model developments undertaken at the cortical tissue level, was implemented in a three-dimensional finite element framework. The simulated cell response was calibrated to the experimental measurements under the selected test conditions, providing a novel single cell model that could form the basis for further refinements.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2010.10.018
