title: Active Tensile Modulus of an Epithelial Monolayer.
abstract: A general trait of cell monolayers is their ability to exert contractile stresses on their surroundings. The scaling laws that link such contractile stresses with the size and geometry of constituent cells remain largely unknown. In this Letter, we show that the active tension of an epithelial monolayer scales linearly with the size of the constituent cells, a surprisingly simple relationship. The slope of this relationship defines an active tensile modulus, which depends on the concentration of myosin and spans more than 2 orders of magnitude across cell types and molecular perturbations.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona 08028, Spain.
authors.forename: Romaric
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vincent
authors.affiliation: Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona 08028, Spain.
authors.forename: Elsa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bazellières
authors.affiliation: Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona 08028, Spain.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pérez-González
authors.affiliation: Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona 08028, Spain.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uroz
authors.affiliation: Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona 08028, Spain.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Serra-Picamal
authors.affiliation: Institut Català de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona 08028, Spain and Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona 08028, Spain.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Trepat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004285:Dogs; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D061985:Madin Darby Canine Kidney Cells; D008954:Models, Biological