Active Nematics Reinforce the Ratchet Flow in Dense Environments Without Jamming.

ABSTRACT: The past decade witnessed a surge in discoveries where biological systems, such as bacteria or living cells, inherently portray active polar or nematic behavior: they prefer to align with each other and form local order during migration. Although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, utilizing their physical properties to achieve controllable cell-layer transport will be of fundamental importance. In this study, the ratchet effect is harnessed to control the collective motion of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in vitro. NPCs travel back-and-forth and do not specify head or tail, and therefore regarded as nematics alike liquid crystals. Ratchet and splay-shaped confinements are crafted to modulate collective cell dynamics in dense environments, while jamming is not explicitly spotted. Th

SUBMITTER: Yao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11923915 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature