Lecturer : Adi Rotem
Abstract:
Biological cells in the human body communicate using chemical, electrical, and mechanical signals passed between them. In recent years new forms of mechanical communication between cells were discovered, and their important role in self-organization of cells was revealed. To understand important multi-cellular processes such as tissue formation, one must understand the underlying cell-cell interactions, and to quantitatively analyze their influence. Recently a new form of cell-cell mechanical interaction was found: cells plated on soft elastic substrates communicate by exerting forces on the substrate and responding to deformations caused by other cells. In addition, it is known that groups of cells tend to disperse on rigid substrates and aggregate or form networks on soft substrates. The dependence on substrate rigidity shows that the basis of this self-organization is some form of mechanical interaction between the cells. In this study we suggest that an interplay between erratic forces that tend to disperse the cells and the cell-cell interaction mediated by substrate deformations can explain rigidity dependent self-organization of cells. We present a mathematical model to quantitatively analyze the phenomenon.