Figure 3
Modelling the spatial variation of the nucleus stiffness. Left: The experimental values, show a rise of E* at increasing deformation (the response at 15 nN is not shown because the resulting high deformation proved to be very difficult to simulate numerically). Middle: When the nucleus is modelled with FEA as a sphere with a constant Young’s modulus, the calculated values after analysis are nearly constant. Adding a stiff external layer, representing the nuclear lamina increases the absolute stiffness but does not introduce the deformation length-scale dependency. Right: Here, the modelled nucleus has a Young’s modulus that linearly decreased from the centre to the periphery (from 10 to 0.3 kPa). The analysed values for E now increase with the deformation length-scale, similar as the experimental values. This is independent of the nuclear lamina.
