From cell intercalation to flow, the importance of T1 transitions

Abstract: Within the context of epithelial monolayers, T1 transitions, also known as cell-intercalations, are topological rearrangements of cells that contribute to fluidity of the epithelial monolayers. We use a multi-phase field model to show that the ensemble-averaged flow profile of a T1 transition exhibits a saddle point structure, where large velocities are localised near cells undergoing T1 transitions, contributing to vortical flow. This tissue fluidisation corresponds to the dispersion of cells relative to each other. While the temporal evolution of the mean pair-separation distance between initially neighbouring cells depends on specific model details, the mean pair-separation distance increases linearly with the number of T1 transitions, in a way that is robust to model parameters.