Assessing mechanical agency during apical apoptotic cell extrusion

Epithelial tissues maintain homeostasis through the continual addition and removal of cells. Homeostasis is necessary for epithelia to maintain barrier function and prevent the accumulation of defective cells. Unfit, excess, and dying cells can be removed from epithelia by the process of extrusion. Controlled cell death and extrusion in the epithelium of the larval zebrafish tail fin coincides with oscillation of cell area, both in the extruding cell and its neighbors. Both cell-autonomous and non-autonomous factors have been proposed to contribute to extrusion but have been challenging to test by experimental approaches. Here we develop a dynamic cell-based biophysical model that recapitulates the process of oscillatory cell extrusion to test and compare the relative contributions of these factors. Our model incorporates the mechanical properties of individual epithelial cells in a two-dimensional simulation as repelling active particles. The area of cells destined to extrude oscillates with varying durations or amplitudes, decreasing their mechanical contribution to the epithelium and surrendering their space to surrounding cells. Quantitative variations in cell shape and size during extrusion are visualized by a hybrid weighted Voronoi tessellation technique that renders individual cell mechanical properties directly into an epithelial sheet. To explore the role of autonomous and non-autonomous mechanics, we vary the biophysical properties and behaviors of extruding cells and neighbors such as the period and amplitude of repulsive forces, cell density, and tissue viscosity. Our data suggest that cell autonomous processes are major contributors to the dynamics of extrusion, with the mechanical microenvironment providing a less pronounced contribution. Our computational model based on in vivo data serves as a tool to provide insights into the cellular dynamics and localized changes in mechanics that promote elimination of unwanted cells from epithelia during homeostatic tissue maintenance.