Microtubule Biomechanics and the Effect of Degradation of Elastic Moduli

The present study aims at quantifying the effect of mechanical degradation of microtubules on their electro-elastic response. A three-dimensional continuum-based hollow cylindrical domain of a microtubule has been considered in this work. A fully coupled electro-mechanical model has been developed for conducting the comparative analysis considering three different cases, viz., no degradation, 50% degradation and 90% degradation of elastic modulus of the microtubule. The microtubule has been subjected to dynamic forces adopted from the commonly used loading-unloading conditions in nanoindentation experiments. The results show that the degradation of microtubules significantly influences their electro-elastic response when subjected to externally applied forces. The transient response of the model in terms of induced displacement, electric potential and volumetric strain has also been analyzed for different magnitudes of mechanical degradation. The modelling study presented here represents a more accurate electro-mechanical model compared to the classical mechanical model for quantifying the effects of mechanical transductions on microtubules biomechanics.