Contact inhibition of locomotion determines cell-cell and cell-substrate forces in tissues.

ABSTRACT: Cells organized in tissues exert forces on their neighbors and their environment. Those cellular forces determine tissue homeostasis as well as reorganization during embryonic development and wound healing. To understand how cellular forces are generated and how they can influence the tissue state, we develop a particle-based simulation model for adhesive cell clusters and monolayers. Cells are contractile, exert forces on their substrate and on each other, and interact through contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL), meaning that cell-cell contacts suppress force transduction to the substrate and propulsion forces align away from neighbors. Our model captures the traction force patterns of small clusters of nonmotile cells and larger sheets of motile Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells.

SUBMITTER: Zimmermann J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4791011 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature