Assess whether mechanical constraints alone can explain tissue-scale dynamics in epithelial colonies

Determine whether purely mechanical constraints, without any additional intercellular interactions, are sufficient to explain the observed tissue-scale dynamics of expanding epithelial cell monolayers exhibiting contact inhibition.

Background

A central question in the modeling of epithelial monolayers is whether global behaviors associated with contact inhibition—such as changes in colony area growth, cell density, and collective cell motion—can emerge from mechanical constraints alone (e.g., space limitation) without invoking explicit intercellular signaling or adhesion mechanisms.

The authors develop a minimal cellular automaton incorporating size-dependent proliferation, growth, and migration subject to volume exclusion, to test this hypothesis. Prior to presenting their results, they state that resolving this question remains largely open in the literature.

References

However, the question whether mechanical constraints alone, without further intercellular interaction, can explain the observed tissue-scale dynamics remains still largely open.

— Minimal cellular automaton model with heterogeneous cell sizes predicts epithelial colony growth (2403.07612 - Lange et al., 12 Mar 2024) in Introduction, final paragraph before Section “Data-driven approach”