Coaction of intercellular adhesion and cortical tension specifies tissue surface tension.

ABSTRACT: In the course of animal morphogenesis, large-scale cell movements occur, which involve the rearrangement, mutual spreading, and compartmentalization of cell populations in specific configurations. Morphogenetic cell rearrangements such as cell sorting and mutual tissue spreading have been compared with the behaviors of immiscible liquids, which they closely resemble. Based on this similarity, it has been proposed that tissues behave as liquids and possess a characteristic surface tension, which arises as a collective, macroscopic property of groups of mobile, cohering cells. But how are tissue surface tensions generated? Different theories have been proposed to explain how mesoscopic cell properties such as cell-cell adhesion and contractility of cell interfaces may underlie tissue surface

SUBMITTER: Manning ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2906578 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature