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Cell Division and Motility Enable Hexatic Order in Biological Tissues.

Yiwen Tang1,2, Siyuan Chen3, Mark J Bowick3,4

  • 1Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.

Physical Review Letters
|June 10, 2024
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Summary

Cell division and apoptosis, alongside active motility, drive biological tissues through liquid-hexatic-liquid transformations. This transition involves a balance between defects from cell division and active binding from motility, revealing new insights into tissue dynamics.

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Area of Science:

  • Biophysics
  • Cellular Dynamics
  • Soft Matter Physics

Background:

  • Biological tissues exhibit solid-like and liquid-like states crucial for physiological processes.
  • Two-dimensional epithelial tissues may transition through hexatic phases, similar to 2D melting, characterized by orientational order without translational order.
  • Previous research identified motility and thermal fluctuations as inducers of hexatic order, but the role of cell division and apoptosis was unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of cell division and apoptosis on global hexatic order in biological tissues.
  • To understand the interplay between cell division, apoptosis, and active motility in tissue phase transitions.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the self-propelled Voronoi model to simulate tissue dynamics.
  • Analyzed the effects of varying cell division, apoptosis rates, and active motility.
  • Developed a mean-field model to explain the observed competition and order development.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated that the combination of cell division and active motility induces a liquid-hexatic-liquid transformation as motility increases.
  • Identified that the hexatic phase emerges from a balance between dislocation defects generated by cell division and active binding of disclination-antidisclination pairs driven by motility.
  • Showcased that cell division, while seemingly disruptive, is essential for accessing the hexatic phase under active conditions.

Conclusions:

  • Cell division and apoptosis play a significant, previously underestimated role in regulating tissue phase transitions.
  • The interplay between cell birth/death and active cell motility governs the emergence and stability of hexatic order in tissues.
  • Findings provide a mechanistic understanding of how fundamental cellular processes contribute to tissue-level emergent behavior.