Undulation Instability of Epithelial Tissues

Markus Basan (1) , Jean-François Joanny (1) , Jacques Prost (1, 2) , Thomas Risler (1)

1 PCC - Physico-Chimie-Curie
2 ESPCI Paris - Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris

Treating the epithelium as an incompressible fluid adjacent to a viscoelastic stroma, we find a novel hydrodynamic instability that leads to the formation of protrusions of the epithelium into the stroma. This instability is a candidate for epithelial fingering observed in vivo. It occurs for sufficiently large viscosity, cell-division rate and thickness of the dividing region in the epithelium. Our work provides physical insight into a potential mechanism by which interfaces between epithelia and stromas undulate, and potentially by which tissue dysplasia leads to cancerous invasion.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]; Biophysique [physics.bio-ph]; Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Physique Médicale [physics.med-ph]

Markus Basan, Jean-François Joanny, Jacques Prost, Thomas Risler. Undulation Instability of Epithelial Tissues. Physical Review Letters, 2011, 106, pp.158101. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.158101⟩. ⟨hal-00961016⟩