Morphologies of compressed active epithelial monolayers

TL;DR

This study uses a 3D active vertex model to explore how active junctional noise and mechanical strains influence epithelial monolayer morphologies, revealing conditions for villus formation without external patterning.

Contribution

It demonstrates that junctional tension fluctuations and differential tension can induce complex epithelial shapes, including villi, even in unsupported tissues, highlighting the role of active noise.

Findings

Villus morphology appears only with strong junctional tension fluctuations.

Fluidized epithelium can form villi without compressive strain if tension differences are large.

Nontrivial morphologies can develop in unsupported, non-patterned epithelia.

Abstract

Using a three-dimensional active vertex model, we numerically study the shapes of strained unsupported epithelial monolayers subject to active junctional noise due to stochastic binding and unbinding of myosin. We find that while uniaxial, biaxial, and isotropic in-plane compressive strains do lead to the formation of longitudinal, herringbone-pattern, and labyrinthine folds, respectively, the villus morphology characteristic of, e.g., the small intestine appears only if junctional tension fluctuations are strong enough to fluidize the tissue. Moreover, the fluidized epithelium features villi even in absence of compressive strain provided that the apico-basal differential tension is large enough. We analyze several details of the different epithelial forms including the role of strain rate and the modulation of tissue thickness across folds. Our results show that nontrivial morphologies can form even in unsupported, non-patterned epithelia.