Field induced cell proliferation and death in a model epithelium

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of the dynamics of a thick polar epithelium subjected to the action of both an electric and a flow field in a planar geometry. We develop a generalized continuum hydrodynamic description and describe the tissue as a two component fluid system. The cells and the interstitial fluid are the two components and we keep all terms allowed by symmetry. In particular we keep track of the cell pumping activity for both solvent flow and electric current and discuss the corresponding orders of magnitude. We study the growth dynamics of a tissue slab, its steady states and obtain the dependence of the cell velocity, net cell division rate, and cell stress on the flow strength and the applied electric field. We find that finite thickness tissue slabs exist only in a restricted region of phase space and that relatively modest electric fields or imposed external flows can induce either proliferation or death. Our model can be tested in well controlled experiments on in vitro epithelial sheets, which will open the way to systematic studies of field effects on tissue dynamics. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.