A Cellular Automata Model of Fingering in Wound Healing

Basu, Soham (2019) A Cellular Automata Model of Fingering in Wound Healing. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

PDF (MS dissertation of Soham Basu (14MS111)) 14MS111.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (17MB)

Abstract

Collective cell migration is essential to life. Such migration is often seen in multicellular organisms in processes that involve development, morphogenesis, wound healing, tumor migration, cancer metastasis among others. Though single cell migration is very well understood, how cells decide to collectively migrate and how it is implemnted is still an open problem. In this year long semester project, we have tried to computationally model how collective cell migrations occur in the process of wound healing. We have approached using primarily a Cellular Automata approach, and showed how a rugged topography with fingering outgrowths is emergent out of intercellular adhesion. We have also shown how tuning the adhesiveness among cells can trigger the formation of fingering instabilities in the advancing interface. The introduction of leader cells, as widely observed in experiments, in the cellular automata model allows to peek into the dynamics of leader cells on the tissue growth. This model can be used to study cell migration in different dynamical regimes. Apart from Cellular Automata, a Cellular Potts and a connected spring model is also approached to explain the traction forces obtained in experiments.

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