Phase transition in the collective migration of tissue cells: experiment and model

Abstract

We have recorded the swarming-like collective migration of a large number of keratocytes (tissue cells obtained from the scales of goldfish) using long-term videomicroscopy. By increasing the overall density of the migrating cells, we have been able to demonstrate experimentally a kinetic phase transition from a disordered into an ordered state. Near the critical density a complex picture emerges with interacting clusters of cells moving in groups. Motivated by these experiments we have constructed a flocking model that exhibits a continuous transition to the ordered phase, while assuming only short-range interactions and no explicit information about the knowledge of the directions of motion of neighbors. Placing cells in microfabricated arenas we found spectacular whirling behavior which we could also reproduce in simulations.

Submitted to Physical Review E. Supplementary material available at http://angel.elte.hu/~bszabo/collectivecells/

References in corpus (3)

• Novel type of phase transition in a system of self-driven particles
• Noise-Induced Transition from Translational to Rotational Motion of Swarms
• New aspects of the continuous phase transition in the scalar noise model (SNM) of collective motion

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Collective motion of self-propelled particles interacting without cohesion
• Phase transitions in swarming systems: A recent debate
• Dynamics and Steady States in excitable mobile agent systems
• The Effect of Sensory Blind Zones on Milling Behavior in a Dynamic Self-Propelled Particle Model
• Turning with the others: novel transitions in an SPP model with coupling of accelerations