Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Bioessays. 2020 Feb;42(2):e1900146. doi: 10.1002/bies.201900146.
Evolution exploits the physics of non-neural bioelectricity to implement anatomical homeostasis: a process in which embryonic patterning, remodeling, and regeneration achieve invariant anatomical outcomes despite external interventions. Linear "developmental pathways" are often inadequate explanations for dynamic large-scale pattern regulation, even when they accurately capture relationships between molecular components. Biophysical and computational aspects of collective cell activity toward a target morphology reveal interesting aspects of causation in biology. This is critical not only for unraveling evolutionary and developmental events, but also for the design of effective strategies for biomedical intervention. Bioelectrical controls of growth and form, including stochastic behavior in such circuits, highlight the need for the formulation of nuanced views of pathways, drivers of system-level outcomes, and modularity, borrowing from concepts in related disciplines such as cybernetics, control theory, computational neuroscience, and information theory. This approach has numerous practical implications for basic research and for applications in regenerative medicine and synthetic bioengineering.
这个过程中，胚胎的模式形成、重塑和再生可以在外部干预的情况下实现不变的解剖学结果。线性的“发育途径”通常不足以解释动态的大规模模式调控，即使它们准确地捕捉到了分子成分之间的关系。对集体细胞活动的生物物理和计算方面朝着目标形态的发展揭示了生物学中因果关系的有趣方面。这不仅对于揭示进化和发育事件至关重要，而且对于设计有效的生物医学干预策略也至关重要。生物电学对生长和形态的控制，包括此类电路中的随机行为，突出了需要从控制论、控制理论、计算神经科学和信息论等相关学科的概念中借鉴途径、系统水平结果的驱动因素和模块化的细致观点。这种方法对基础研究以及再生医学和合成生物工程中的应用具有许多实际意义。
