Cell sorting by active forces in a phase-field model of cell monolayers

Cell sorting, the segregation of cells with different properties into distinct domains, is a key phenomenon in biological processes such as embryogenesis. We use a phase-field model of a confluent cell layer to study the role of activity in cell sorting. We find that a mixture of cells with extensil...

Mô tả đầy đủ

Chi tiết về thư mục
Những tác giả chính: Graham, JN, Zhang, G, Yeomans, JM
Định dạng: Journal article
Ngôn ngữ:English
Được phát hành: Royal Society of Chemistry 2024
Miêu tả
Tóm tắt:Cell sorting, the segregation of cells with different properties into distinct domains, is a key phenomenon in biological processes such as embryogenesis. We use a phase-field model of a confluent cell layer to study the role of activity in cell sorting. We find that a mixture of cells with extensile or contractile dipolar activity, and which are identical apart from their activity, quickly sort into small, elongated patches which then grow slowly in time. We interpret the sorting as driven by the different diffusivity of the extensile and contractile cells, mirroring the ordering of Brownian particles connected to different hot and cold thermostats. We check that the free energy is not changed by either partial or complete sorting, thus confirming that activity can be responsible for the ordering even in the absence of thermodynamic mechanisms.