title: Analysis of individual cell trajectories in lattice-gas cellular automaton models for migrating cell populations.
abstract: Collective dynamics of migrating cell populations drive key processes in tissue formation and maintenance under normal and diseased conditions. Collective cell behavior at the tissue level is typically characterized by considering cell density patterns such as clusters and moving cell fronts. However, there are also important observables of collective dynamics related to individual cell behavior. In particular, individual cell trajectories are footprints of emergent behavior in populations of migrating cells. Lattice-gas cellular automata (LGCA) have proven successful to model and analyze collective behavior arising from interactions of migrating cells. There are well-established methods to analyze cell density patterns in LGCA models. Although LGCA dynamics are defined by cell-based rules, individual cells are not distinguished. Therefore, individual cell trajectories cannot be analyzed in LGCA so far. Here, we extend the classical LGCA framework to allow labeling and tracking of individual cells. We consider cell number conserving LGCA models of migrating cell populations where cell interactions are regulated by local cell density and derive stochastic differential equations approximating individual cell trajectories in LGCA. This result allows the prediction of complex individual cell trajectories emerging in LGCA models and is a basis for model-experiment comparisons at the individual cell level.
authors.affiliation: Technische Universität Dresden, Zentrum für Informationsdienste und Hochleistungsrechnen, Nöthnitzer Strasse 46, 01187, Dresden, Germany, carsten.mente@tu-dresden.de.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mente
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Voss-Böhme
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deutsch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D060833:Cellular Microenvironment; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D008954:Models, Biological; D013269:Stochastic Processes