Mohammad Reza Nikmaneshi - Center of Excellence in Energy Conversion, School of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology Tehran, Iran
Bahar Firoozabadi - Center of Excellence in Energy Conversion, School of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology Tehran, Iran
Mohammad Said Saidi - Center of Excellence in Energy Conversion, School of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology Tehran, Iran

The front part of a cell is divided to two regions called lamellum and lamellipodium (lamellipodial). This part plays an essential role for cell migration. Indeed, there are many proteinfilaments called actin in lamellum and lamellipodium, which induce the cell motion with polymerization in the leading edge ofthe cell. The actin filaments adhere to the extracellular matrix (ECM) by means of focal adhesions and they have contact bymyosin motor proteins. The myosin motor proteins cause actinretrograde and anterograde flow exerted contractile stress on them. The focal adhesions exert frictional stress on the actinfilaments. In this work, we developed a two-dimensional continuum model of the fan-shaped lamellipodial to obtain theactin retrograde flow. In addition, the actin filaments are assumed as a highly viscous Newtonian fluid. We also investigated the effects of the myosin distribution and cell speed on the actin flow.

myosin motor protein , actin network , focal adhesion , lamellipodial , retrograde flow , anterograde flow