Understanding the underlying mechanisms of pattern formation and cellular aggregation

One of the most fundamental issues in developmental biology is the ability of cells to form tissues. Here we employ a lattice model to study the structure formation of cellular aggregates regulated through different mutually attractive forces. Aggregation of cells on a two-dimensional monolayer substrate consists of a series of motility, collision, and different adhesion processes to form tissues. Here we present a model with three different cellular interactions, ie, cell adhesion via physical contact, mechanical and chemotactically driven motility to investigate the growth of collective cellular structures. Using specific substrate rigidity, our simulation reveals that in the presence of chemotaxy, the mean cluster size and number of clusters vary significantly than the other two interactive forces. Moreover, our simulations also capture several dynamical properties of growing aggregates, such as rate of cell aggregation, correlation function, cluster size distribution, and compactness of the aggregates. Interestingly the dynamical cluster domain growth is represented by a power law in which the exponents remain identical in any conditions. The size distributions of clusters are qualitatively discussed in terms of stretched exponentials which is lost in chemotaxy.