Abstract
Modelling the displacement of thousands of cells that move in a collective way is required for the simulation and the theoretical analysis of various biological processes. Here, we tackle this question in the controlled setting where the motion of Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells in a confluent epithelium is triggered by the unmasking of free surface. We develop a simple model in which cells are described as point particles with a dynamic based on the two premises that, first, cells move in a stochastic manner and, second, tend to adapt their motion to that of their neighbors. Detailed comparison to experimental data show that the model provides a quantitatively accurate description of cell motion in the epithelium bulk at early times. In addition, inclusion of model “leader” cells with modified characteristics, accounts for the digitated shape of the interface which develops over the subsequent hours, providing that leader cells invade free surface more easily than other cells and coordinate their motion with their followers. The previously-described progression of the epithelium border is reproduced by the model and quantitatively explained.
Highlights
Interactions between moving entities correlates their motions
The developed model should serve as a useful basis for the description of other processes that involve collective cell motion
Model of collective cell motion Our aim is to describe in the simplest quantitative fashion the collective motion of cells in an actively moving epithelium
Summary
Interactions between moving entities correlates their motions. This takes place at all scales, from atoms and molecules, as evidenced by the familiar experiences of wind and fluid vortices to the astronomical scales of stars and galaxies. Collective movements are observed from colonies of bacteria [1] to herds of animals [2] They underlie the fascinating motions of bird flocks [3,4] and fish schools [5] as well as pedestrian track patterns and traffic flows [6]. At the level of cells, collective motion is an important component of different biological processes in multicellular organisms [7] It is an integral part of development [8], as illustrated for instance by dorsal closure in Drosophila embryo, maintenance processes such as wound healing [9], and disorders with cancer as a prime example [10]. It has been studied in vivo, in model systems such as border cell migration in drosophila oogenesis [11,12] or lateral line migration in zebrafish [13,14], as well as in simpler and more controlled ex vivo experiments where the motion of cells is simpler to record [15,16,17,18,19,20,21]
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