Growth and Elasticity of Mechanically-Created Neurites

Madeleine Anthonisen; Peter Grutter

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arXiv · 1912.05735

Growth and Elasticity of Mechanically-Created Neurites

Madeleine Anthonisen·Peter Grutter

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Abstract

Working in the framework of morphoelasticity, we develop a model of neurite growth in response to elastic deformation. We decompose the applied stretch into an elastic component and a growth component, and adopt an observationally-motivated model for the growth law. We then compute the best-fit model parameters by fitting to force-extension curves from measurements of constant-speed uniaxial deformations of mechanically-induced neurites of rat hippocampal neurons. We find a time constant for the growth law of 0.009~s$^{-1}$, similar to the diffusion rate of actin in a cell. Our results characterize the kinematics of neurite growth and establish new limits on the growth rate of neurites.

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Madeleine Anthonisen, Peter Grutter. 2019-12-12. Growth and Elasticity of Mechanically-Created Neurites. https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.05735

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