Junctional-Fluctuation-Mediated Fluidisation of Multi-Phase Field Epithelial Monolayers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multi-phase field model for epithelial monolayers that incorporates stochastic junctional fluctuations, revealing their role in tissue fluidization and cell diffusion, with findings consistent with vertex model results.

Contribution

It presents a novel multi-phase field model incorporating junctional fluctuation dynamics, bridging insights from vertex models to this approach.

Findings

Junctional fluctuations induce tissue fluidization.

Cell diffusion coefficient varies non-monotonically with fluctuation persistence.

Model results align with previous vertex model observations.

Abstract

We analyse a multi-phase field model for an epithelial monolayer with pairwise adhesions between neighbouring cells following an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, representing the stochastic turnover of junctional molecular motors. These fluctuations in junctional adhesion result in rearrangements in the tissue, fluidising it and producing diffusive cell motion. Similar junctional fluctuations have proven a very useful tool in the vertex model literature, and we hope they will be equally helpful to the multi-phase field model approach. Moreover, we observe that the cells' effective diffusion coefficient depends non-monotonically on the persistence time of the fluctuations, confirming results previously observed in the vertex model.