A Parameter Study on a Mathematical Model of Cellular Blebbing

Cell migration plays an essential role in many important biological processes such as wound healing, cancer metastasis, embryonic development, and the immune response. Recent advances in microscopy show cells migrating in more physiologically relevant 3D environments. In particular, they showed that some cells such as leukocytes, embryonic cells, and cancer cells, migrate through 3D matrices adopt an amoeboid phenotype characterized by round, liquid-filled, pressure-driven protrusions. Blebs are one type of protrusion these cells use to migrate in different environments. Blebbing occurs when the cortex, a thin layer of the cytoskeleton directly beneath the cell membrane, detaches from the membrane, resulting in the pressuredriven flow of cytosol towards the area of detachment and the local expansion of the cell membrane. Blebs are initiated by local cortical rupture or by a local disruption in the proteins that link the membrane to the cortex.