000084887 001__ 84887 000084887 005__ 20191118101500.0 000084887 037__ $$aTAZ-TFM-2019-033 000084887 041__ $$aeng 000084887 1001_ $$aLafuente Gracia, Laura 000084887 24200 $$aWhere shall I go? The mechanosensing adventures of a computational single cell 000084887 24500 $$aWhere shall I go? The mechanosensing adventures of a computational single cell 000084887 260__ $$aZaragoza$$bUniversidad de Zaragoza$$c2019 000084887 500__ $$aTFM realizado durante estancia Erasmus en KU Leuven (Bélgica). 000084887 506__ $$aby-nc-sa$$bCreative Commons$$c3.0$$uhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ 000084887 520__ $$aCell adhesion and migration play an essential role in processes within the human body such as embryogenesis, tissue regeneration or cancer. Thus, to fully understand the behaviour of the mechanisms that regulate them would be a big step in biomedicine. In recent years, computational models have been postulated as firm candidates in terms of cellular research, since they constitute a very powerful tool complementary to traditional in vitro research: thanks to them, we are able to analyze what is happening within the cell even at subcellular level. In this work, we used a computational model to approach such cellular processes by studying the mechanical stimuli that govern the interaction of a cell with its environment. In particular, our interest resided in analyzing how the cell exerts traction through its actomyosin stress fibers by sensing the substrate stiffness, which is known as mechanosensing; as a consequence, the cell is deformed and this allows cell migration. To mimic some biological functions regarding cell-matrix adhesions, Bell's model and fiber maturation were implemented in the computational model. From the results we obtained after running some simulations, it is shown that there are many factors that influence cell traction. For instance, the total amount of focal adhesions at a certain time determines the number of fibers exerting force at the same time, which is translated as a higher force. Also, if those focal adhesions are able to live longer, there are more fibers coexisting. Substrate stiffness also plays an important role: as stiffness increases, stress fibers mature further and thus exert higher forces on the substrate; in addition, it also determines the size of the contact interface between the cell and the substrate. All in all, computational methods give quantitative and qualitative data with a lot of detail; hence, further research in this line is indeed a big step forward. 000084887 521__ $$aMáster Universitario en Ingeniería Biomédica 000084887 540__ $$aDerechos regulados por licencia Creative Commons 000084887 700__ $$aVan Oosterwyck, Hans$$edir. 000084887 700__ $$aVargas, Diego$$edir. 000084887 7102_ $$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bIngeniería Mecánica$$cMec. de Medios Contínuos y Teor. de Estructuras 000084887 7202_ $$aGarcía Aznar, José Manuel$$eponente 000084887 8560_ $$f610208@celes.unizar.es 000084887 8564_ $$s1772178$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/84887/files/TAZ-TFM-2019-033.pdf$$yMemoria (eng) 000084887 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:84887$$pdriver$$ptrabajos-fin-master 000084887 950__ $$a 000084887 951__ $$adeposita:2019-11-18 000084887 980__ $$aTAZ$$bTFM$$cEINA 000084887 999__ $$a20190212112323.CREATION_DATE