Cortical tension links curvature to tissue growth in the cellular Potts model.

Abstract

The growth of biological tissue is sensitive to the physical properties of the environment. For example, the growth rate of contractile tissue under geometric confinement is proportional to local curvature as a result of tissue surface tension. It is not known how local cell behavior is coordinated to give rise to such behavior. Here we use computer simulations based on the cellular Potts model to investigate the role of cell adhesion and cortical contractility for curvature-dependent tissue growth. Our results show that tension-dependent local proliferation leads to the observed macroscopic curvature-driven growth kinetics via tissue surface tension, independent of soluble growth factors.