Collective heterogeneity of mitochondrial potential in contact inhibition of proliferation

In the epithelium, cell density and cell proliferation are closely connected to each other through contact inhibition of proliferation (CIP). Depending on cell density, CIP proceeds through three distinct stages: the free-growing stage at low density, the pre-epithelial transition stage at medium density, and the post-epithelial transition stage at high density. Previous studies have elucidated how cell morphology, motion, and mechanics vary in these stages. However, it remains unknown whether cellular metabolism also has a density-dependent behavior. By measuring the mitochondrial membrane potential at different cell densities, here we reveal a heterogeneous landscape of metabolism in the epithelium, which appears qualitatively distinct in three stages of CIP and did not follow the trend of other CIP-associated parameters, which increases or decreases monotonically with increasing cell density. Importantly, epithelial cells established a collective metabolic heterogeneity exclusively in the pre-epithelial transition stage, where the multicellular clusters of high- and low-potential cells emerged. However, in the post-epithelial transition stage, the metabolic potential field became relatively homogeneous. Next, to study the underlying dynamics, we constructed a system biology model, which predicted the role of cell proliferation in metabolic potential toward establishing collective heterogeneity. Further experiments indeed revealed that the metabolic pattern spatially correlated with the proliferation capacity of cells, as measured by the nuclear localization of a pro-proliferation protein, YAP. Finally, experiments perturbing the actomyosin contractility revealed that, while metabolic heterogeneity was maintained in the absence of actomyosin contractility, its ab initio emergence depended on the latter. Taken together, our results revealed a density-dependent collective heterogeneity in the metabolic field of a pre-epithelial transition-stage epithelial monolayer, which may have significant implications for epithelial form and function.