title: Polarity mechanisms such as contact inhibition of locomotion regulate persistent rotational motion of mammalian cells on micropatterns.
abstract: Pairs of endothelial cells on adhesive micropatterns rotate persistently, but pairs of fibroblasts do not; coherent rotation is present in normal mammary acini and kidney cells but absent in cancerous cells. Why? To answer this question, we develop a computational model of pairs of mammalian cells on adhesive micropatterns using a phase field method and study the conditions under which persistent rotational motion (PRM) emerges. Our model couples the shape of the cell, the cell's internal chemical polarity, and interactions between cells such as volume exclusion and adhesion. We show that PRM can emerge from this minimal model and that the cell-cell interface may be influenced by the nucleus. We study the effect of various cell polarity mechanisms on rotational motion, including contact inhibition of locomotion, neighbor alignment, and velocity alignment, where cells align their polarity to their velocity. These polarity mechanisms strongly regulate PRM: Small differences in polarity mechanisms can create significant differences in collective rotation. We argue that the existence or absence of rotation under confinement may lead to insight into the cell's methods for coordinating collective cell motility.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Physics and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093; Departments of.
authors.forename: Brian A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Camley
authors.affiliation: Physics and Astronomy and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005;
authors.forename: Yunsong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093; Departments of Mathematics and Department of Mathematics, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052; and.
authors.forename: Yanxiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093; Departments of Mathematics and.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005; School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
authors.forename: Eshel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ben-Jacob
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005; Bioengineering and herbert.levine@rice.edu.
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.affiliation: Departments of Physics and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093; Departments of.
authors.forename: Wouter-Jan
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Rappel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D002465:Cell Movement; D016764:Cell Polarity; D003260:Contact Inhibition; D008124:Locomotion; D008322:Mammals / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012399:Rotation