Coordinated motion of epithelial layers on curved surfaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the curvature of surfaces influences the coordinated movement and alignment of epithelial cells, revealing the role of curvature in tissue morphogenesis through a cell-based modeling approach.

Contribution

It introduces a model demonstrating how extrinsic and intrinsic curvature effects influence cell alignment and movement, explaining observed tissue behaviors on curved surfaces.

Findings

Extrinsic curvature aligns cell elongation with principal curvature directions.

Curvature effects can induce large-scale, persistent tissue rotation.

Intrinsic and extrinsic curvature interplay affects cell dynamics on toroidal surfaces.

Abstract

Coordinated cellular movements are key processes in tissue morphogenesis. Using a cell-based modeling approach we study the dynamics of epithelial layers lining surfaces with constant and varying curvature. We demonstrate that extrinsic curvature effects can explain the alignment of cell elongation with the principal directions of curvature. Together with specific self-propulsion mechanisms and cell-cell interactions this effect gets enhanced and can explain observed large-scale, persistent and circumferential rotation on cylindrical surfaces. On toroidal surfaces the resulting curvature coupling is an interplay of intrinsic and extrinsic curvature effects. These findings unveil the role of curvature and postulate its importance for tissue morphogenesis.