Aging phenomena in a network model of the cytoskeleton

Motivated by a series of experiments that study the response of the cytoskeleton in living cells to time dependent mechanical forces, we investigate, through Monte Carlo simulations, a three-dimensional network subjected to perturbations. After having prepared the system in a relaxed state, shear is applied and the relaxation processes are monitored. We measure two-time functions of various quantities such as the Euclidean distance between crosslinks and the energy of the system. We discuss possible implications of our results for relaxation processes taking place in the cytoskeleton.