Collective motion of cells modeled as ring polymers

Area of Science:

• Computational biophysics
• Soft matter physics
• Cellular dynamics

Background:

• Understanding emergent collective behaviors in biological systems is crucial.
• Self-propelled particles offer a model for studying active matter, including cell colonies.
• The interplay between individual cell properties and colony-level dynamics remains an active research area.

Purpose of the Study:

• To computationally investigate the spatiotemporal collective behavior of cell colonies using a coarse-grained model.
• To explore how motility force, cell density, and cell shape influence collective motion.
• To characterize the degree of collectivity and alignment within the simulated cell colonies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a coarse-grained model of disjoint semi-flexible ring polymers to represent cells.
• Simulated self-propelled motion driven by a motility force dependent on historical kinetics.
• Analyzed collective behavior using metrics such as average cluster size and velocity/polarity order parameters.

Main Results:

• Collective motion emerges from repulsive cell interactions, enhanced by increased motility force and areal density.
• The degree of collectivity increases with motility force and cell area coverage.
• Cell velocity fields show stronger alignment than cell polarity fields within clusters.
• Elongated cells demonstrate stronger collective behavior compared to circular cells at equivalent conditions.

Conclusions:

• Self-propelled ring polymers can model emergent collective behavior in cell colonies.
• Motility force, density, and cell shape are key factors governing cooperative motion.
• The findings provide insights into the physical mechanisms driving cellular aggregation and coordinated movement.