Issue 10, 2018

Simulation of colony pattern formation under differential adhesion and cell proliferation

Abstract

Proliferation of individual cells is one of the hallmarks of living systems, and collectively the cells within a colony or tissue form highly structured patterns, influencing the properties at the population level. We investigate the joint effect of proliferation in the form of cell division and cell sorting due to differential adhesion using a cellular automaton model. Through simulations and theoretical analysis akin to interface growth, we show that this model gives rise to slower than exponential growth in the case of a single cell type as well as novel colony patterns in the case of two cell types. In particular, engulfment of one cell type by the other is strongly enhanced compared to the prediction from the differential adhesion hypothesis in the absence of proliferation. These observations provide new insights in predicting and characterizing colony morphology using experimentally accessible information such as single cell growth rate and cell adhesion strength.

Graphical abstract: Simulation of colony pattern formation under differential adhesion and cell proliferation

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Dec 2017
Accepted
15 Feb 2018
First published
16 Feb 2018

Soft Matter, 2018,14, 1908-1916

Simulation of colony pattern formation under differential adhesion and cell proliferation

J. J. Dong and S. Klumpp, Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 1908 DOI: 10.1039/C7SM02451G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements