Bridging the Gap Between Collective Motility and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transitions through the Active Finite Voronoi Model

TL;DR

This paper introduces an active finite Voronoi model for epithelial tissue that captures multiple phases, including collective motility and EMT, providing a unified framework for biological processes like development and cancer metastasis.

Contribution

The paper presents the first active finite Voronoi model that simulates both confluent and non-confluent tissue geometries and their transitions, extending previous vertex-based models.

Findings

Identified six distinct tissue phases.

Demonstrated the model captures EMT and collective motility.

Provided simulation code for further research.

Abstract

We introduce an active version of the recently proposed finite Voronoi model of epithelial tissue. The resultant Active Finite Voronoi (AFV) model enables the study of both confluent and non-confluent geometries and transitions between them, in the presence of active cells. Our study identifies six distinct phases, characterized by aggregation-segregation, dynamical jamming-unjamming, and epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMT), thereby extending the behavior beyond that observed in previously studied vertex-based models. The AFV model with rich phase diagram provides a cohesive framework that unifies the well-observed progression to collective motility via unjamming with the intricate dynamics enabled by EMT. This approach should prove useful for challenges in developmental biology systems as well as the complex context of cancer metastasis. The simulation code is also provided at https://github.com/jxhuangphys/Active_Finite_Voronoi_simulation.