The role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal crypt

We present a mechanical model of tissue homeostasis that is specialised to the intestinal crypt. Growth and deformation of the crypt, idealised as a line of cells on a substrate, are modelled using morphoelastic rod theory. Alternating between Lagrangian and Eulerian mechanical descriptions enables...

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Main Authors: Almet, AA, Byrne, H, Maini, P, Moulton, D
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2020
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author Almet, AA
Byrne, H
Maini, P
Moulton, D
author_facet Almet, AA
Byrne, H
Maini, P
Moulton, D
author_sort Almet, AA
collection OXFORD
description We present a mechanical model of tissue homeostasis that is specialised to the intestinal crypt. Growth and deformation of the crypt, idealised as a line of cells on a substrate, are modelled using morphoelastic rod theory. Alternating between Lagrangian and Eulerian mechanical descriptions enables us precisely to characterise the dynamic nature of tissue homeostasis, whereby the proliferative structure and morphology are static in the Eulerian frame, but there is active migration of Lagrangian material points out of the crypt. Assuming mechanochemical growth, we identify the necessary conditions for homeostasis, reducing the full, timedependent system to a static boundary value problem characterising a spatially-heterogeneous “treadmilling” state. We extract essential features of crypt homeostasis, such as the morphology, the proliferative structure, the migration velocity, and the sloughing rate. We also derive closed-form solutions for growth and sloughing dynamics in homeostasis, and show that mechanochemical growth is sufficient to generate the observed proliferative structure of the crypt. Key to this is the concept of threshold-dependent mechanical feedback, that regulates an established Wnt signal for biochemical growth. Numerical solutions demonstrate the importance of crypt morphology on homeostatic growth, migration, and sloughing, and highlight the value of this framework as a foundation for studying the role of mechanics in homeostasis.
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spelling oxford-uuid:09a935c2-9b35-4838-af06-d1eda3e1ba202022-03-26T09:19:33ZThe role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal cryptJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:09a935c2-9b35-4838-af06-d1eda3e1ba20EnglishSymplectic ElementsSpringer2020Almet, AAByrne, HMaini, PMoulton, DWe present a mechanical model of tissue homeostasis that is specialised to the intestinal crypt. Growth and deformation of the crypt, idealised as a line of cells on a substrate, are modelled using morphoelastic rod theory. Alternating between Lagrangian and Eulerian mechanical descriptions enables us precisely to characterise the dynamic nature of tissue homeostasis, whereby the proliferative structure and morphology are static in the Eulerian frame, but there is active migration of Lagrangian material points out of the crypt. Assuming mechanochemical growth, we identify the necessary conditions for homeostasis, reducing the full, timedependent system to a static boundary value problem characterising a spatially-heterogeneous “treadmilling” state. We extract essential features of crypt homeostasis, such as the morphology, the proliferative structure, the migration velocity, and the sloughing rate. We also derive closed-form solutions for growth and sloughing dynamics in homeostasis, and show that mechanochemical growth is sufficient to generate the observed proliferative structure of the crypt. Key to this is the concept of threshold-dependent mechanical feedback, that regulates an established Wnt signal for biochemical growth. Numerical solutions demonstrate the importance of crypt morphology on homeostatic growth, migration, and sloughing, and highlight the value of this framework as a foundation for studying the role of mechanics in homeostasis.
spellingShingle Almet, AA
Byrne, H
Maini, P
Moulton, D
The role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal crypt
title The role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal crypt
title_full The role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal crypt
title_fullStr The role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal crypt
title_full_unstemmed The role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal crypt
title_short The role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal crypt
title_sort role of mechanics in the growth and homeostasis of the intestinal crypt
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