Geometric signatures of tissue surface tension in a three-dimensional model of confluent tissue

TL;DR

This study investigates how tissue surface tension influences cell organization and geometry in 3D confluent tissues, revealing that tension induces specific geometric signatures that scale with tension magnitude.

Contribution

It introduces a 3D tissue model showing tension-driven cell sorting and geometric features, supported by minimal lattice models explaining the physical mechanisms.

Findings

Cells sort and organize to form tissue interfaces under tension.

Geometric features scale with imposed tension magnitude.

Minimal models reveal energetic competition influences cell topology.

Abstract

In dense biological tissues, cell types performing different roles remain segregated by maintaining sharp interfaces. To better understand the mechanisms for such sharp compartmentalization, we study the effect of an imposed heterotypic tension at the interface between two distinct cell types in a fully 3D model for confluent tissues. We find that cells rapidly sort and self-organize to generate a tissue-scale interface between cell types, and cells adjacent to this interface exhibit signature geometric features including nematic-like ordering, bimodal facet areas, and registration, or alignment, of cell centers on either side of the two-tissue interface. The magnitude of these features scales directly with the magnitude of imposed tension, suggesting that biologists can estimate the magnitude of tissue surface tension between two tissue types simply by segmenting a 3D tissue. To uncover the underlying physical mechanisms driving these geometric features, we develop two minimal, ordered models using two different underlying lattices that identify an energetic competition between bulk cell shapes and tissue interface area. When the interface area dominates, changes to neighbor topology are costly and occur less frequently, which generates the observed geometric features.