Variational approximation methods for long-range force transmission in biopolymer gels  

作　　者：Haiqin Wang Xinpeng Xu 王海钦;徐新鹏(Physics Program,Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,241 Daxue Road,Shantou 515063,China;Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,Haifa 3200003,Israel)

机构地区：[1]Physics Program,Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,241 Daxue Road,Shantou 515063,China [2]Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,Haifa 320000,Israel

出　　处：《Chinese Physics B》2022年第10期429-435,共7页中国物理B（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China (Grant No. 12004082);Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme (2019), 2020 Li Ka Shing Foundation Cross-Disciplinary Research (Grant No. 2020LKSFG08A);Provincial Science Foundation of Guangdong (Grant No. 2019A1515110809);Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2020B1515310005);Featured Innovative Projects (Grant No. 2018KTSCX282);Youth Talent Innovative Platforms (Grant No. 2018KQNCX318) in Universities in Guangdong Province。

摘　　要：The variational principle of minimum free energy(MFEVP) has been widely used in research of soft matter statics.The MFEVP can be used not only to derive equilibrium equations(including both bulk equations and boundary conditions),but also to develop direct variational methods(such as Ritz method) to find approximate solutions to these equilibrium equations. We apply these variational methods to study long-range force transmission in nonlinear elastic biopolymer gels.It is shown that the slow decay of cell-induced displacements measured experimentally for fibroblast spheroids in threedimensional fibrin gels can be well explained by variational approximations based on the three-chain model of biopolymer gels.

关 键 词：biopolymer gels cell-cell communications force transmission variational methods 

分 类 号：TQ427.26[化学工程] Q6-33[生物学—生物物理学]