Fig. 7.

Cells mechanically interact with surrounding matrix fibers. a Cells attach to nearby fibers, contract, and thereby deform the matrix. The simulated, cell-mediated matrix displacements are in a realistic range when compared to experimental data (Notbohm et al. 2015; Malandrino et al. 2019). b Contracting cells can mechanically interact with other cells over a distance of several cell diameters via long-range mechanical signaling through matrix fibers, a phenomenon observed also in experiments (Ma et al. 2013; Shi et al. 2013; Baker et al. 2015; Kim et al. 2017; Mann et al. 2019). c Cells, visualized with reconstructed cell membrane around stress fibers, develop different shapes when pulling on the ECM