Motility induced phase separation of deformable cells

TL;DR

This study uses a multi-phase field model to show that cell deformability enhances motility induced phase separation, affecting the organization and disorder of dense cell regions, with implications for biological self-organization.

Contribution

It demonstrates how cell deformability influences MIPS, revealing that squishy cells phase separate more effectively than rigid ones, expanding understanding of biological cell organization.

Findings

Deformable cells phase separate more effectively than rigid cells.

Increased deformability leads to more disordered dense regions.

Deformability extends collision durations, affecting phase separation.

Abstract

Using a multi-phase field model, we examine how particle deformability, which is a proxy for cell stiffness, affects motility induced phase separation (MIPS). We show that purely repulsive deformable, i.e., squishy, cells phase separate more effectively than their rigid counterparts. This can be understood as due to the fact that deformability increases the effective duration of collisions. In addition, the dense regions become increasingly disordered as deformability increases. Our results contextualize the applicability of MIPS to biological systems and have implications for how cells in biological systems may self-organize