Migrating Epithelial Monolayer Flows like a Maxwell Viscoelastic Liquid

Tlili S, Durande M, Gay C, Ladoux B, Graner F, Delanoë-Ayari H (2020)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Physical Review Letters American Physical Society

Book Volume: 125

Article Number: 088102

Journal Issue: 8

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.088102

Abstract

We perform a bidimensional Stokes experiment in an active cellular material: an autonomously migrating monolayer of Madin-Darby canine kidney epithelial cells flows around a circular obstacle within a long and narrow channel, involving an interplay between cell shape changes and neighbor rearrangements. Based on image analysis of tissue flow and coarse-grained cell anisotropy, we determine the tissue strain rate, cell deformation, and rearrangement rate fields, which are spatially heterogeneous. We find that the cell deformation and rearrangement rate fields correlate strongly, which is compatible with a Maxwell viscoelastic liquid behavior (and not with a Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic solid behavior). The value of the associated relaxation time is measured as τ=70±15 min, is observed to be independent of obstacle size and division rate, and is increased by inhibiting myosin activity. In this experiment, the monolayer behaves as a flowing material with a Weissenberg number close to one which shows that both elastic and viscous effects can have comparable contributions in the process of collective cell migration.

Authors with CRIS profile

Benoit Ladoux

Involved external institutions

University of Paris 7 - Denis Diderot / Université Paris VII Denis Diderot FR France (FR) Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCB) FR France (FR) National University of Singapore (NUS) SG Singapore (SG)

How to cite

APA:

Tlili, S., Durande, M., Gay, C., Ladoux, B., Graner, F., & Delanoë-Ayari, H. (2020). Migrating Epithelial Monolayer Flows like a Maxwell Viscoelastic Liquid. Physical Review Letters, 125(8). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.088102

MLA:

Tlili, S., et al. "Migrating Epithelial Monolayer Flows like a Maxwell Viscoelastic Liquid." Physical Review Letters 125.8 (2020).

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