Perspective: Towards understanding the multiscale description of cells and tissues by electromechanobiology

Abstract

Almost all biological cells in living tissues exert and experience forces that influence biological function. When subjected to an exogenous electric field, mechanical forces operate on cells, its constituents, and interfaces with the environment. Many issues about force generation and dynamics, the distance over which a force exerts its influence and how cells convert an electrical excitation into a mechanical deformation, are not well understood from general first-principles physics. The electric field at the interface between cells is not only the driving force for the polarization and conduction phenomena but also induces simultaneously a mechanical stress field. Within the extremely heterogeneous multicellular structure of biological materials (BM), theoretical models and experimental techniques to understand and control their local electromechanical response in BM grow space. In recent years, biophysicists have begun to uncover the important time and length scales that mediate force propagation in BM. In this perspective review, the multiscale modelling approaches and experimental probes for the application of an electromagnetic field to exert mechanical forces upon polarizable BM are reported with special emphasis on the control of forces at the cell and tissue levels. Modelling is based on a multicellular assembly exchanging charges and stresses with the environment. Here, we shall restrict to coarse-graining models since the resulting computational complexity quickly becomes overwhelming. Such work can pave the way for a deeper understanding of how physical forces influence biological functions.