Elastic interactions of mechanically polarizable cells.

Adaptive contractile cells modeled as polarizable point force dipoles exhibit a generic short-ranged, generally attractive induced-dipole elastic interaction, strengthening monotonically as matrix stiffness softens.

• Why it matters: Long-ranged elastic interactions between nonpolarizable dipoles peak at intermediate stiffness and weaken on soft matrices, leaving unclear how cells can accumulate at short separations on soft substrates.
• What they did: The authors develop an analytical theory where each cell’s adaptive forces are solved self-consistently from local deformations, treating cells as localized contractile force generators and computing interaction energy.
• The result: The induced-dipole interaction is analogous to van der Waals forces and can reverse from repulsive at long distances to attractive at short separations, supporting a cohesive mechanism for cell accumulation on soft substrates.

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