Turbulent dynamics of epithelial cell cultures

Abstract

In vitro epithelial monolayers exhibit a rich repertoire of collective dynamical behaviours according to microenvironment mechanical features. We investigate the statistical and dynamical properties of human bronchial epithelial cell (HBEC) flows in bulk, by analysing their large length-scale and long time-scale spatiotemporal dynamics. Activity-driven spontaneous collective flows consist of an ensemble of vortices randomly positioned in space. By analysing a large population of vortices, we show that their area follows an exponential law with a constant mean value and their rotational frequency is size-independent, both being characteristic features of the chaotic dynamics of active nematic suspensions. Indeed, we find that HBECs self-organise in nematic domains of several cell lengths. Nematic defects are found at the interface between domains with a total number that remains constant by the dynamical balance of nucleation and annihilation events. Near +/-1/2 defects, the mean velocity field is in faithful agreement with the dynamics of extensile active nematics.

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Cited by in corpus (66)

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• Universal scaling of active nematic turbulence
• Machine learning active-nematic hydrodynamics
• Statistical Properties of Autonomous Flows in 2D Active Nematics
• Hydrodynamics of Active Defects: from order to chaos to defect ordering
• Confinement controlled bend instability of three-dimensional active fluids
• Design of nematic liquid crystals to control microscale dynamics
• Twist-induced crossover from 2D to 3D turbulence in active nematics
• Topology of three-dimensional active nematic turbulence confined to droplets
• Morphology of active deformable 3D droplets
• Mechanical basis and topological routes to cell elimination
• Integer topological defects of cell monolayers -- mechanics and flows
• Soft Metamaterials: Adaptation and Intelligence
• Chiral stresses in nematic cell monolayers
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• Collective effects in confined Active Brownian Particles
• The role of fluid flow in the dynamics of active nematic defects
• Spontaneous Self-Constraint in Active Nematic Flows
• Spectral energy analysis of bulk three-dimensional active nematic turbulence
• Active extensile stress promotes 3D director orientations and flows
• Defect Spirograph: Dynamical Behavior of Defects in Spatially Patterned Active Nematics
• Probing active nematics with in-situ microfabricated elastic inclusions
• Orientational correlations in active and passive nematic defects
• Exact coherent structures and phase space geometry of pre-turbulent 2D active nematic channel flow
• Controlling topological defects and contractile flow in confined nematic cell population
• Active Matter Invasion
• Fluctuations can induce local nematic order and extensile stress in monolayers of motile cells
• Living cells on the move
• Scaling regimes of active turbulence with external dissipation
• Active nematics with quenched disorder
• Activity driven orientational order in active nematic liquid crystals on an anisotropic substrate
• Fluctuation-induced dynamics of nematic topological defects
• Emergence of bidirectional cell laning from collective contact guidance
• Tubulation and dispersion of oil by bacterial growth on droplets
• Defect absorption and emission for $p$-atic liquid crystals on cones
• Coexistence of defect morphologies in three dimensional active nematics
• Active nematic defects in compressible and incompressible flows
• Nonlinear spontaneous flow instability in active nematics
• Traction and Stress Control Formation and Motion of +1/2 Topological Defects in Epithelial Cell Monolayers
• Multi-defect Dynamics in Active Nematics
• Hydrodynamics of thermal active matter
• Statistical physics of active matter, cell division and cell aggregation
• Active topological defect absorption by a curvature singularity
• Local polar order controls mechanical stress and triggers layer formation in developing Myxococcus xanthus colonies
• Machine learning topological defects in confluent tissues
• Quadrupolar active stress induces exotic phases of defect motion in active nematics
• Thickness of epithelia on wavy substrates: measurements and continuous models
• Self-sustained oscillations of active viscoelastic matter
• Active Lévy Matter: Anomalous Diffusion, Hydrodynamics and Linear Stability
• Irreversibility in scalar active turbulence: The role of topological defects
• Aspect-ratio-dependent void formation in active rhomboidal and elliptical particle systems
• Orientational order and topological defects in a dilute solutions of rodlike polymers at low Reynolds number
• Hydrodynamic stability and pattern formation in hexatic epithelial layers
• Topological defects in polar active matter
• Memory effects, arches and polar defect ordering at the cross-over from wet to dry active nematics
• Dynamical arrest in active nematic turbulence
• A phase diagram for bacterial swarming
• Nematic order condensation and topological defects in inertial active nematics
• Long-ranged velocity correlations in dense systems of self-propelled particles
• Collective epithelial migration mediated by the unbinding of hexatic defects
• On the temperature of an active nematic