Despite the primary role of cell proliferation in tissue development and homeostatic maintenance, the interplay between cell density, cell mechanoresponse, and cell growth and division is poorly described in theoretical models of tissues. As a consequence, the predictive power of such models is largely undermined, and the lack of systematic statistical and experimental analysis in controlled experiments does not allow to calibrate and validate already existing tools. In this article, we first report an experimental investigation of cell proliferation on all time- and length-scales and quantify the role of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. Based on these results, we build a minimal density-driven mean-field model of cell proliferation within 2D epithelia which can account for mechanoresponse and which is based on a separation of cell population into growing and dividing cells. We show that the model can capture the in-vitro experimental results and is further validated by in-silico experiments, and we highlight the importance of the separation of time scale and populations in the description of the cell life cycle. Additionally, we show that the mechanoresponse observed in the proliferation patterns is responsible of large-scale density structures across the tissues that we can capture by nonlinear delayed Fisher-Kolmogorov-like equations. This work sets a first building stone in a theoretical description of tissues on long time- and length-scale while accounting for proliferation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.