Endocytosis and exocytosis are key mechanisms in cellular systems by which a cell deforms its plasma membrane to move substances in or out of the cell. Whereas these cellular processes typically rely on active mechanisms, we study here the problem of achieving encapsulation by a purely physical process. We consider an ideal system in which a rigid particle is put in contact with a spherical deformable body. Depending on the interaction energy between both objects and the mechanical response of the body, partial or total encapsulation may reduce the total energy of the system. In this case, the system would evolve naturally so that the particle will be partially or completely engulfed by the body, a process that we refer to as partial or complete elastocytosis. We consider three systems of increasing complexity and we show that elastocytosis is a generic mechanism that can always be achieved in some parameter regimes.

胞吞作用和胞吐作用是细胞系统中的关键机制，通过该机制，细胞变形其质膜，从而将物质移入或移出细胞。这些细胞过程通常依赖于主动机制，我们在这里研究通过纯物理过程实现封装的问题。我们考虑一种理想的系统，其中将刚性粒子与球形可变形体接触。根据两个物体之间的相互作用能和身体的机械响应，部分或全部封装可能会降低系统的总能量。在这种情况下，系统会自然进化，因此粒子将被身体部分或完全吞噬，我们称此过程为部分或完全弹性。我们考虑了三个复杂性不断增加的系统，并且我们表明弹力细胞增多是一种通用机制，可以在某些参数方案中始终实现。