RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Self-assembly of tessellated tissue sheets by growth and collision
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.05.06.442983
DO 10.1101/2021.05.06.442983
A1 Matthew A. Heinrich
A1 Ricard Alert
A1 Abraham E. Wolf
A1 Andrej Košmrlj
A1 Daniel J. Cohen
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/10/2021.05.06.442983.abstract
AB Tissues do not exist in isolation–they interact with other tissues within and across organs. While cell-cell interactions have been intensely investigated, less is known about tissue-tissue interactions. Here, we studied collisions between monolayer tissues with different geometries, cell densities, and cell types. First, we determine rules for tissue shape changes during binary collisions and describe complex cell migration at tri-tissue boundaries. Next, we demonstrate that genetically identical tissues displace each other based solely on cell density gradients, and present a physical model of tissue interactions that allows us to estimate the bulk modulus of the tissues from collision dynamics. Finally, we introduce TissEllate, a design tool for self-assembling complex tessellations from arrays of many tissues, and we use cell sheet engineering techniques to transfer these composite tissues like cellular films. Overall, our work provides insight into the mechanics of tissue collisions, harnessing them to engineer tissue composites as designable living materials.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.