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Active Forces in Confluent Cell Monolayers.

Guanming Zhang1, Julia M Yeomans1

  • 1Department of Physics, The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom.

Physical Review Letters
|February 10, 2023
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Intercellular forces drive cell shape and movement in tissues. Contractile forces cause elongation and turbulence, while extensile forces lead to frustration and varied cell alignment.

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Area of Science:

  • Biophysics
  • Computational Biology
  • Cellular Dynamics

Background:

  • Understanding how cells interact and move collectively is crucial for tissue development and disease.
  • Intercellular forces play a significant role in dictating tissue-level behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of intercellular active forces on cell morphology and collective motion.
  • To explore the dynamics of confluent cell monolayers under dominant intercellular forces.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing a computational phase-field model.
  • Employing analytical analysis to complement simulations.
  • Focusing on scenarios where intercellular forces outweigh polar forces.

Main Results:

  • Contractile intercellular interactions induce cell elongation, nematic ordering, and active turbulence with topological defects.
  • Extensile interactions lead to frustration and increased prevalence of perpendicular cell orientations.
  • Anisotropic fluctuations in cell shape can reverse contractile behavior to extensile.

Conclusions:

  • Intercellular forces are key mediators of cell morphology and collective motion in confluent tissues.
  • The nature of intercellular forces (contractile vs. extensile) dictates distinct tissue dynamics.
  • Cell shape anisotropy can significantly alter the response to intercellular forces.