Hydrodynamics and multiscale order in confluent epithelia

TL;DR

This paper develops a hydrodynamic theory revealing multiscale liquid crystal order in confluent epithelial cell layers, supported by models and experiments, with implications for understanding collective cell migration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hydrodynamic framework describing multiscale nematic and hexatic order in epithelial monolayers, linking theory with cell-resolved models and experimental observations.

Findings

Epithelia exhibit both nematic and hexatic order at different scales.

The structure factor shows two distinct power law regimes.

Cell models demonstrate how noise and dissipation affect collective behavior.

Abstract

We formulate a hydrodynamic theory of confluent epithelia: i.e. monolayers of epithelial cells adhering to each other without gaps. Taking advantage of recent progresses toward establishing a general hydrodynamic theory of p-atic liquid crystals, we demonstrate that collectively migrating epithelia feature both nematic (i.e. p=2) and hexatic (i.e. p=6) order, with the former being dominant at large and the latter at small length scales. Such a remarkable multiscale liquid crystal order leaves a distinct signature in the system's structure factor, which exhibits two different power law scaling regimes, reflecting both the hexagonal geometry of small cells clusters, as well as the uniaxial structure of the global cellular flow. We support these analytical predictions with two different cell-resolved models of epithelia -- i.e. the self-propelled Voronoi model and the multiphase field model -- and highlight how momentum dissipation and noise influence the range of fluctuations at small length scales, thereby affecting the degree of cooperativity between cells. Our construction provides a theoretical framework to conceptualize the recent observation of multiscale order in layers of Madin-Darby canine kidney cells and pave the way for further theoretical developments.