Bursts of activity in collective cell migration

Area of Science:

• Cell biology
• Soft matter physics
• Biophysics

Background:

• Living cells form dense monolayers exhibiting relaxation dynamics near the jamming transition.
• Collective cell migration is crucial in biological processes like wound healing and cancer invasion.
• Cellular movement shares similarities with phenomena in soft and glassy materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the dynamics of collective cell migration.
• To identify universal patterns and scaling laws in cell invasion.
• To model collective cell motion using principles from inanimate systems.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of collective cell migration dynamics.
• Observation of cell activity bursts.
• Development of a model for interacting active particles in a disordered landscape.

Main Results:

• Collective cell migration occurs in bursts, analogous to crack propagation and ferromagnetic domain wall motion.
• The distribution of activity bursts exhibits universal scaling laws across different cell types and substrates.
• A model of interacting active particles quantitatively captures invasion dynamics.

Conclusions:

• Collective cell migration displays universal scaling laws, similar to driven inanimate systems.
• Cell invasion dynamics can be understood through analogies with crack propagation and fluid fronts.
• The study provides insights into the physics governing collective cell motion.