Abstract
We carried out finite element analyses for an endothelial cell which is subjected to three-types of stretch through a substrate. The cell, the nucleus and the substrate are modeled as a neo-Hookean material with different material constants. The result from stress/strain analyses show that the strain decreases with the height which agrees with the experimental result in the literature, indicating that the transmission of the deformation from the substrate to the cell has some reduction even in the case of an elastic material. The result also shows that the nucleus causes a high level of stress in the cell under the nucleus. The result also provides the three-dimensional orientation of stress fibers between the apical membrane and the basal membrane on the basis of a proposed hypothesis.
