Mechanical & Materials Engineering, Department of
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
2015
Citation
Micromachines 2015, 6, pp. 902-914; doi:10.3390/mi6070902.
Abstract
In this work, a mathematical model was developed to relate the mechanochemical characterizations of molecular motors with the macroscopic manifestation of muscle contraction. Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics were used to study the collective behavior of myosin molecular motors in terms of the complex conformation change and multiple chemical states in one working cycle. The stochastic evolution of molecular motor probability density distribution during the contraction of sarcomere was characterized by the Fokker-Planck Equation. Quick muscle contraction was demonstrated by the collective dynamic behavior of myosin motors, the muscle contraction force, and the muscle contraction velocity-force relation. Our results are validated against published experiments, as well as the predictions from the Hill’s model. The quantitative relation between myosin molecular motors and muscle contraction provides a novel way to unravel the mechanism of force generation.
Included in
Mechanics of Materials Commons, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Commons, Other Engineering Science and Materials Commons, Other Mechanical Engineering Commons
Comments
Chen, Zhang, Lin, & Gu in MDPI Micromachines (2015) 6. Copyright © 2015, the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Open access, Creative Commons Attribution license 4.0.