School of Physical and Mathematical Science, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Soft Matter. 2020 Apr 29;16(16):3914-3920. doi: 10.1039/d0sm00109k.
In many biological processes, such as wound healing, cell tissues undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, which is a transition from a more rigid to a more fluid state. Here, we investigate the solid/fluid transition of cell tissues within the framework of the self-propelled Voronoi model, which accounts for the deformability of the cells, for their many-body interactions, and for their polarized motility. The transition is controlled by two parameters, respectively accounting for the strength of the self-propelling force of the cells, and for the mechanical rigidity of the cells. We find the melting transition to occur via a continuous solid-hexatic transition followed by a continuous hexatic-liquid transition, as in the Kosterlitz, Thouless, Halperin, Nelson, and Young scenario. This finding indicates that the hexatic phase may have an unexpected biological relevance.
在许多生物过程中，如伤口愈合，细胞组织经历上皮-间充质转化，即从更刚性状态向更流态转变。在此，我们在自推进 Voronoi 模型框架内研究细胞组织的固-流转变，该模型考虑了细胞的可变形性、多体相互作用以及它们的极化运动。转变由两个参数控制，分别表示细胞的自推进力的强度和细胞的机械刚性。我们发现，如科斯特利茨、索利斯、哈尔佩林、纳尔逊和杨的情景所示，通过连续的固态-六方转变和连续的六方-液态转变发生熔化转变。这一发现表明，六方相可能具有意想不到的生物学相关性。
