Confocal-based cell-specific finite element modeling extended to study variable cell shapes and intracellular structures: The example of the adipocyte

This communication extends the recently reported cell-specific finite element (FE) method in Slomka and Gefen (2010) in which geometrically realistic FE cell models are created from confocal microscopy scans for large deformation analyses. The cell-specific FE method is extended here in the following aspects: (i) we demonstrate that cell-specific FE is versatile enough to deal with cells of substantially different geometrical shapes. The examples of an “elongated” pre-adipocyte and a “round” mature adipocyte are used to demonstrate this feature. (ii) We demonstrate that cell-specific FE can be used to analyze the mechanical behavior of cells that incorporate complex intracellular structures and are subjected to large deformations—again through the example of an adipocyte which contains a multitude of lipid droplets, each having a different size and shape. By demonstrating feasibility of inclusion of such inhomogeneities in the cytoplasm, the present work paves the way for modeling cellular organelles such as Golgi bodies, lysosomes and mitochondria in mechanically loaded cells using cell-specific FE.