Repository logo
 

The devil is in the mesoscale: Mechanical and behavioural heterogeneity in collective cell movement.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

No Thumbnail Available

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Blanchard, Guy B 
Fletcher, Alexander G 
Schumacher, Linus J 

Abstract

Heterogeneity within cell populations can be an important aspect affecting their collective movement and tissue-mechanical properties, determining for example their effective viscoelasticity. Differences in cell-level properties and behaviour within a group of moving cells can give rise to unexpected and non-intuitive behaviours at the tissue level. Such emergent phenomena often manifest themselves through spatiotemporal patterns at an intermediate 'mesoscale' between cell and tissue scales, typically involving tens of cells. Focussing on the development of embryonic animal tissues, we review recent evidence for the importance of heterogeneity at the mesoscale for collective cell migration and convergence and extension movements. We further discuss approaches to incorporate heterogeneity into computational models to complement experimental investigations.

Description

Keywords

Collective cell migration, Convergence and extension, Heterogeneity, Mesoscale, Tissue mechanics, Cell Movement, Humans

Journal Title

Semin Cell Dev Biol

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1084-9521
1096-3634

Volume Title

93

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (099234/Z/12/Z)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/J010278/1)
GBB acknowledges the Wellcome Trust Investigator Award 099234/Z/12/Z to Bénédicte Sanson. AGF is supported by a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellowship from the University of Sheffield. LJS is supported by a Chancellor’s Fellowship from the University of Edinburgh.