Bursts of activity in collective cell migration
Abstract
Dense monolayers of living cells display intriguing relaxation dynamics, reminiscent of soft and glassy materials close to the jamming transition, and migrate collectively when space is available, as in wound healing or in cancer invasion. Here we show that collective cell migration occurs in bursts that are similar to those recorded in the propagation of cracks, fluid fronts in porous media and ferromagnetic domain walls. In analogy with these systems, the distribution of activity bursts displays scaling laws that are universal in different cell types and for cells moving on different substrates. The main features of the invasion dynamics are quantitatively captured by a model of interacting active particles moving in a disordered landscape. Our results illustrate that collective motion of living cells is analogous to the corresponding dynamics in driven, but inanimate, systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1610.07774,
title = {Bursts of activity in collective cell migration},
author = {Oleksandr Chepizhko and Costanza Giampietro and Eleonora Mastrapasqua and Mehdi Nourazar and Miriam Ascagni and Michela Sugni and Umberto Fascio and Livio Leggio and Chiara Malinverno and Giorgio Scita and Stephane Santucci and Mikko J. Alava and Stefano Zapperi and Caterina A. M. La Porta},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.07774},
year = {2017}
}