Dense active matter model of motion patterns in confluent cell monolayers

Silke Henkes (), Kaja Kostanjevec, J. Martin Collinson, Rastko Sknepnek () and Eric Bertin ()
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Silke Henkes: University of Bristol
Kaja Kostanjevec: University of Aberdeen
J. Martin Collinson: University of Aberdeen
Rastko Sknepnek: University of Dundee
Eric Bertin: Université Grenoble Alpes and CNRS, LIPHY

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Epithelial cell monolayers show remarkable displacement and velocity correlations over distances of ten or more cell sizes that are reminiscent of supercooled liquids and active nematics. We show that many observed features can be described within the framework of dense active matter, and argue that persistent uncoordinated cell motility coupled to the collective elastic modes of the cell sheet is sufficient to produce swirl-like correlations. We obtain this result using both continuum active linear elasticity and a normal modes formalism, and validate analytical predictions with numerical simulations of two agent-based cell models, soft elastic particles and the self-propelled Voronoi model together with in-vitro experiments of confluent corneal epithelial cell sheets. Simulations and normal mode analysis perfectly match when tissue-level reorganisation occurs on times longer than the persistence time of cell motility. Our analytical model quantitatively matches measured velocity correlation functions over more than a decade with a single fitting parameter.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15164-5

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