TY - JOUR
T1 - Extracellular and intercellular force distribution in circularly shaped epithelia
AU - Zhang, Yao
AU - Wei, Qiong
AU - Zhao, Tiankai
AU - Zhao, Peng
AU - Zhang, Sulin
N1 - Funding Information:
S.L.Z. acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation (Grant CMMI-0754463 and CBET-1067523). S.L.Z. acknowledge the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI R21 HL122902).
Funding Information:
S.L.Z. acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation (Grant CMMI-0754463 and CBET-1067523 ). S.L.Z. acknowledge the National Institutes of Health ( NHLBI R21 HL122902 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - Stress homeostasis in multicellular organisms is essential to tissue growth, development, and repair. However, how cellular forces are generated and transmitted within a multicellular organism to maintain stress homeostasis remains poorly understood. Here we employ cellular force microscopies to quantify extracellular traction and intercellular tension of circularly shaped cohesive epithelia seeded on hydrogels of various stiffness. Our experimental measurements show that the traction force is both colony size and gel stiffness dependent. A minimal mechanics model is developed and predicts exponential decay of extracellular traction from the periphery to the center of the epithelial monolayers, which agrees with the experimental data. Our modeling analyses further show that the colony size and gel stiffness dependent traction is originated from the line tension effect and stiffness-dependent cell contractility, respectively. Our study lays down a foundation for future modeling and experimental measurements of cellular force generation, transmission, and distribution in multicellular organisms, which is critical to mechanobiological understanding of normal and disease development.
AB - Stress homeostasis in multicellular organisms is essential to tissue growth, development, and repair. However, how cellular forces are generated and transmitted within a multicellular organism to maintain stress homeostasis remains poorly understood. Here we employ cellular force microscopies to quantify extracellular traction and intercellular tension of circularly shaped cohesive epithelia seeded on hydrogels of various stiffness. Our experimental measurements show that the traction force is both colony size and gel stiffness dependent. A minimal mechanics model is developed and predicts exponential decay of extracellular traction from the periphery to the center of the epithelial monolayers, which agrees with the experimental data. Our modeling analyses further show that the colony size and gel stiffness dependent traction is originated from the line tension effect and stiffness-dependent cell contractility, respectively. Our study lays down a foundation for future modeling and experimental measurements of cellular force generation, transmission, and distribution in multicellular organisms, which is critical to mechanobiological understanding of normal and disease development.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.eml.2019.100526
DO - 10.1016/j.eml.2019.100526
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070911327
SN - 2352-4316
VL - 31
JO - Extreme Mechanics Letters
JF - Extreme Mechanics Letters
M1 - 100526
ER -