In silico testing of the universality of epithelial tissue growth

Phys Rev E. 2022 Dec;106(6):L062402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.106.L062402.

Abstract

The universality of interfacial roughness in growing epithelial tissue has remained a controversial issue. Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) universality classes have been reported among other behaviors including a total lack of universality. Here, we simulate tissues using the cellsim3d kinetic division model for deformable cells to investigate cell-colony scaling. With seemingly minor model changes, it can reproduce both KPZ- and MBE-like scaling in configurations that mimic the respective experiments. Tissue growth with strong cell-cell adhesion in a linear geometry is KPZ like, while weakly adhesive tissues in a radial geometry are MBE like. This result neutralizes the apparent scaling controversy.

MeSH terms

  • Epithelium*
  • Kinetics