title: Unjamming and cell shape in the asthmatic airway epithelium.
abstract: From coffee beans flowing in a chute to cells remodelling in a living tissue, a wide variety of close-packed collective systems-both inert and living-have the potential to jam. The collective can sometimes flow like a fluid or jam and rigidify like a solid. The unjammed-to-jammed transition remains poorly understood, however, and structural properties characterizing these phases remain unknown. Using primary human bronchial epithelial cells, we show that the jamming transition in asthma is linked to cell shape, thus establishing in that system a structural criterion for cell jamming. Surprisingly, the collapse of critical scaling predicts a counter-intuitive relationship between jamming, cell shape and cell-cell adhesive stresses that is borne out by direct experimental observations. Cell shape thus provides a rigorous structural signature for classification and investigation of bronchial epithelial layer jamming in asthma, and potentially in any process in disease or development in which epithelial dynamics play a prominent role.
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Jin-Ah
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Jae Hun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244, USA.
authors.forename: Dapeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Mitchel
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran 14179, Iran.
authors.forename: Nader Taheri
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Qazvini
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Kelan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tantisira
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Chan Young
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McGill
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Sae-Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Bomi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gweon
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Notbohm
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Steward
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Burger
authors.affiliation: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, USA.
authors.forename: Scott H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Randell
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Alvin T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kho
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama 36688, USA.
authors.forename: Dhananjay T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Tambe
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Corey
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hardin
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Shore
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Elliot
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Israel
authors.affiliation: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Weitz
authors.affiliation: Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Tschumperlin
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Henske
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244, USA.
authors.forename: M Lisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Drazen
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Fredberg
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001980:Bronchi / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D048430:Cell Shape; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology; D004848:Epithelium / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D012984:Software; D013314:Stress, Mechanical