A chemo-mechanical model for growth and mechanosensing of focal adhesion

Focal adhesion (FA), the complex molecular assembly across the lipid membrane, serves as a hub for physical and chemical information exchange between cells and their microenvironment. Interestingly, studies have shown that FAs can grow along the direction of contractile forces generated by actomyosin stress fibers and achieve larger sizes on stiffer substrates. In addition, the cellular traction transmitted to the substrate was observed to reach the maximum near the FA center. However, the biomechanical mechanisms behind these intriguing findings remain unclear. To answer this important question, here we first developed a one-dimensional (1D) chemo-mechanical model of FA where key features like adhesion plaque deformation, active contraction by stress fibers, force-dependent association/dissociation of integrin bonds connecting two surfaces, and substrate compliance have all been considered. Within this formulation, we showed that the rigidity-sensing capability of FAs originates from the deformability of stress fibers while the force-dependent breakage of integrin bonds leads to the appearance of the traction peak at the FA center. Furthermore, by extending the model into three-dimensional as well as incorporating assembly/dis-assembly kinetics of adhesion proteins, we also demonstrated how anisotropic stress/strain field within the adhesion plaque will be induced by the presence of contractile forces which leads to the directional growth of the FA.