Correlated cell movements drive epithelial finger formation
Abstract
Epithelia form protective barriers in multicellular organisms. To maintain homeostasis, they must be able to regenerate and heal damaged areas. This occurs through collective cell migration, during which finger-like protrusions commonly appear. Whether these protrusions are driven by specialised leader cells, biochemical cues, or generic physical interactions remains unclear. Integrating in vitro imaging, agent-based simulations, and continuum modelling, we show that correlated active cell motion alone suffices to produce fingers. Leader cells, signalling, and proliferation modulate, but do not trigger, this pattern. Our results show that the key mechanism underlying a complex biological process can be understood using a general framework of the physics of dense active matter.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.01046,
title = {Correlated cell movements drive epithelial finger formation},
author = {Sander C. Kammeraat and Yann-Edwin Keta and Paul Appleton and Ian P. Newton and Tanniemola B. Liverpool and Rastko Sknepnek and Inke Näthke and Silke Henkes},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.01046},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
13 pages, 5 figures, Supplementary Information as Appendix