Mapping mechanical stress in curved epithelia of designed size and shape

Ariadna Marín-Llauradó, Sohan Kale (), Adam Ouzeri, Tom Golde, Raimon Sunyer, Alejandro Torres-Sánchez, Ernest Latorre, Manuel Gómez-González, Pere Roca-Cusachs, Marino Arroyo () and Xavier Trepat ()
Additional contact information
Ariadna Marín-Llauradó: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)
Sohan Kale: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Adam Ouzeri: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech
Tom Golde: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)
Raimon Sunyer: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)
Alejandro Torres-Sánchez: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)
Ernest Latorre: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)
Manuel Gómez-González: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)
Pere Roca-Cusachs: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)
Marino Arroyo: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)
Xavier Trepat: The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST)

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The function of organs such as lungs, kidneys and mammary glands relies on the three-dimensional geometry of their epithelium. To adopt shapes such as spheres, tubes and ellipsoids, epithelia generate mechanical stresses that are generally unknown. Here we engineer curved epithelial monolayers of controlled size and shape and map their state of stress. We design pressurized epithelia with circular, rectangular and ellipsoidal footprints. We develop a computational method, called curved monolayer stress microscopy, to map the stress tensor in these epithelia. This method establishes a correspondence between epithelial shape and mechanical stress without assumptions of material properties. In epithelia with spherical geometry we show that stress weakly increases with areal strain in a size-independent manner. In epithelia with rectangular and ellipsoidal cross-section we find pronounced stress anisotropies that impact cell alignment. Our approach enables a systematic study of how geometry and stress influence epithelial fate and function in three-dimensions.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38879-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38879-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38879-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().