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About the Authors:
Daniel L. Barton
Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
Affiliations Division of Physics, School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom, Division of Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
Silke Henkes
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Institute of Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology, Department of Physics, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Cornelis J. Weijer
Roles Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Division of Cell and Developmental Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2192-8150
Rastko Sknepnek
Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliations Division of Physics, School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom, Division of Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0144-9921Abstract
We introduce an Active Vertex Model (AVM) for cell-resolution studies of the mechanics of confluent epithelial tissues consisting of tens of thousands of cells, with a level of detail inaccessible to similar methods. The AVM combines the Vertex Model for confluent epithelial tissues with active matter dynamics. This introduces a natural description of the cell motion and accounts for motion patterns observed on multiple scales. Furthermore, cell contacts are generated dynamically from positions of cell centres. This not only enables efficient numerical implementation, but provides a natural description of the T1 transition events responsible for local tissue rearrangements. The AVM also includes cell alignment, cell-specific mechanical properties, cell growth, division and apoptosis. In addition, the AVM introduces a flexible, dynamically changing boundary of the epithelial sheet allowing for studies of phenomena such as the fingering instability or wound healing. We illustrate these capabilities with a number of case studies.
Author summary
We present a detailed analysis of the Active Vertex Model to study the mechanics of confluent epithelial tissues and cell monolayers. The model combines the commonly used Vertex Model for describing epithelial tissue mechanics with the active matter dynamics extensively studied in soft matter physics. We utlise an exact mathematical mapping that enables a...