{"id":50035,"date":"2015-12-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/cells-are-liquids-but-behave-like-solids\/"},"modified":"2020-11-18T15:11:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:11:40","slug":"cells-are-liquids-but-behave-like-solids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/en\/cells-are-liquids-but-behave-like-solids\/","title":{"rendered":"Cells are liquids, but behave like solids"},"content":{"rendered":"

ICREA research professor Xavier Trepat, group leader\u00a0of the\u00a0Integrative Cell and Tissue Dynamics<\/a>\u00a0research line at the IBEC, describes the discovery as \u2018truly counter-intuitive\u2019:\u00a0\u201cIt means we need brand new laws of physics to understand what ingredients a fluid needs to behave as a solid”.<\/p>\n

The IBEC scientists, who focus their research on the ability of cells to migrate within living organisms \u2013 a crucial process that underlies a wide range of phenomena in development and disease \u2013 published their findings in\u00a0Physics Review Letters\u00a0today. The discovery stems from their development of a new technique called \u201cself-rheology\u201d that allows them to study the very slow behaviour of a material. This is usually very hard to do, as it requires applying a controlled force or deformation for a very long time; but using the technique, Trepat and his colleagues found out that cells are constantly applying forces on each other. \u201cThanks to the ability of cells to naturally pull on and squeeze each other, we realized we didn\u2019t need to apply any force on the cells. We just let them do their thing, and then visualized the resulting forces and deformations,\u201d explains Romaric Vincent, first author on the paper.<\/p>\n

The results were truly astonishing. Living cells have long been thought to behave like fluids over periods of hours, but the experiments showed that they behave like solids rather than liquids. \u201cNo matter how long you wait, cells never flow,\u201d say Trepat. \u201cWhen a liquid is poured into a container, it adapts to its shape. This is the case of water and honey, and even silly putty if you wait long enough. When a force is applied to a liquid, like when you stir a cup of coffee, the liquid flows. In contrast, solid materials such as a rubber band or a spring, don\u2019t flow; instead, they regain their original shape once an externally applied deformation is released.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key to the mystery lies in the so-called \u2018active behaviour\u2019 of cells. Traditional material science could never predict this behaviour, but cells are not traditional materials; they are \u2018active materials\u2019. This means that unlike common materials, cells are able to consume energy and transform it into a force, a movement, or a deformation. Thanks to their active nature, cells can circumvent established dogmas of materials science.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen an embryo develops, or when a wound heals, cells undergo very large deformations to enable new shapes,\u201d says Trepat, who believes the discovery will prompt the scientific community to develop the laws of active matter. \u201cWe thought they did so by behaving like fluids. Now we discover they do so as solids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Reference article:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Romaric Vincent, Elsa Bazellieres, Carlos Perez-Gonzalez, Marina Uroz, Xavier Serra-Picamal and Xavier Trepat (2015).\u00a0Active tensile modulus of an epithelial monolayer.<\/a>\u00a0Physics Review Letters, pub ahead of print. Doi:\u00a0http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1103\/PhysRevLett.115.248103<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC<\/a>) at PCB have revealed that, counter to previous understanding, the living cells in our bodies behave like solids rather than the liquids they are made of. The finding changes the way we think about processes such as embryo development or wound healing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCells are liquids, but behave like solids - Parc Cient\u00edfic de Barcelona<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/en\/cells-are-liquids-but-behave-like-solids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cells are liquids, but behave like solids - Parc Cient\u00edfic de Barcelona\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientists at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) at PCB have revealed that, counter to previous understanding, the living cells in our bodies behave like solids rather than the liquids they are made of. 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