摘要
Collective cells are organized to form specific patterns which play important roles in various physiological and pathological processes, such as tissue morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer invasion. Compared to single cell behaviors, which has been intensively studied from many aspects (cell migration, adhesion, polarization, proliferation, etc.) and at various scales (molecular, subcellular, and cellular), the multiple cell behaviors are relatively less understood, particularly in a quantitative manner. In this paper, we will present our recent studies of collective polarization and orientation of multiple cells through both experimental measurement and theoretical modeling, including those cell behaviors on/in 2D and 3D substrate/tissue. We find that the collective cell behaviors, including polarization, alignment and migration are closely related to local stress states in cell layer or tissue, which demonstrate the crucial roles of mechanical forces in the living organisms. Specifically, the cells prefer to polarize and align along the maximum principal stress in the cell layer, and the aspect ratio of cell increases with the in-plane maximum shear stress, suggesting that the maximum shear stress is the underlying driving force of cell polarization and orientation. This theory of stress-driven cell behaviors of polarization and orientation provides a new perspective for understanding cell behaviors in living organisms and the guideline for tissue engineering in biomedical applications.
基金
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 11772055, 11532009, 11521062, 11372042).
