Cycling and tensed cells interpenetrated by non-cycling and compressed cells form a critical epithelial reticulum (2509.16661v1)

Abstract: With the completion of development and wound repair, as the epithelium approaches homeostasis, cell proliferation is reduced to a minimum. In parallel, cellular motion transitions from a migratory unjammed state to a quiescent jammed state. This quiescent state is commonly regarded as devoid of large-scale regional variations in cell-cycle re-entry and cellular mechanics. To the contrary, here we report that during late maturation there arises a heretofore unanticipated epithelial reticulum that is supracellular and spans multiple scales of length. This reticulum evolves dynamically and comprises two interpenetrating networks: large regions of cycling and mechanically tensed cells, embedded with islands of non-cycling and mechanically compressed cells. The islands of compressed cells emerge and grow in cell numbers, with gradual jamming and with reduced cellular rearrangements. We show how island growth is both reversible, by provoking unjamming, and detainable, by cell cycle arrest treatment. Moreover, the distribution of island sizes was found to conform to a power-law, thus leading us to employ a computational model of percolating critical networks. Together, the observations indicate that the newly discovered epithelial reticulum self-organizes close to but just shy of criticality - thus avoiding mergers of compressed cell islands. This quasi-criticality reframes epithelial homeostasis as a dynamic regional balance of forces and proliferation.