Recent studies suggest that cells routinely probe their mechanical environments and that this mechanosensitive behavior regulates some of their cellular activities. The finite elasticity theory of small-on-large deformation (SoL) has been shown to be effective in interpreting the mechanosensitive behavior of cells on a substrate that has been subjected to a prior large static stretch before the culturing of the cells. Small on large deformation is the superposition of a small deformation onto a prior large deformation that serves as the new reference configuration. This article aims to refine SoL theory to develop a theoretical framework for improved physical interpretation of mechanosensing. Given the initial large deformation in SoL, the stress generated by the small deformation is linearized, and the linearized elasticity tensor is taken to be a significant factor facilitating prediction of cellular behavior. The pre-stretch is shown to produce direction-based, effective elastic moduli for cellular mechanosensing. The utility of this SoL theory is illustrated by culturing of two different cell types grown on uniaxially pre-stretched surfaces that induce changes to the cell orientation and behavior.

中文翻译：

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利用小变形理论研究机械敏感的细胞行为。

最近的研究表明，细胞常规地探测其机械环境，并且这种机械敏感性行为调节了它们的一些细胞活动。小到大变形（SoL）的有限弹性理论已被证明有效地解释了在培养细胞之前已经经历了较大的静态拉伸的基质上的细胞的机械敏感性行为。从大变形到小变形是将小变形叠加到用作新参考配置的先前大变形上。本文旨在完善SoL理论，以开发一种理论框架来改善机械传感的物理解释。给定SoL最初的大变形，小变形所产生的应力将线性化，线性弹性张量被认为是促进细胞行为预测的重要因素。预拉伸被显示出产生基于方向的，有效的弹性模量，用于细胞机械感测。通过培养在单轴预拉伸表面上生长的两种不同细胞类型（可诱导细胞方向和行为发生变化）来说明这种SoL理论的实用性。