Dimensionality and confinement reshape competition in cellular renewing active matter

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Zimmer, Patrick, Bittihn, Philip, Pollack, Yoav G.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866917116538519552
author Zimmer, Patrick
Bittihn, Philip
Pollack, Yoav G.
author_facet Zimmer, Patrick
Bittihn, Philip
Pollack, Yoav G.
contents Cellular renewing active matter - assemblies of proliferating and apoptotic cells - underlies tissue homeostasis, morphogenesis, and clonal competition. Previous work in one-dimensional periodic systems identified a fitness advantage associated with rapid dead-cell clearance, an "opportunistic" competition mechanism. Extending this framework, we study two-dimensional cellular aggregates and show that dimensionality modifies the interplay between competition mechanisms for clones with different clearance rates: in 2D, opportunistic and homeostatic-pressure-based competition jointly shape clonal selection, to varying degrees. We then introduce an explicit circular confinement to probe how boundaries modulate this interplay. While opportunistic competition persists, distinct timescale-dependent behaviors emerge through weakened homeostatic-pressure-based competition near boundaries. Structural analysis reveals that confinement promotes tangential alignment and spatially heterogeneous homeostatic pressure, thereby reshaping competitive outcomes at tissue edges. Our study connects newly discovered competition mechanisms with more realistic biological contexts, highlighting how dimensionality and spatial constraints influence tissue structures and modulate competition in heterogeneous cell populations, with implications for tumor growth dynamics and tissue development.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_01995
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dimensionality and confinement reshape competition in cellular renewing active matter
Zimmer, Patrick
Bittihn, Philip
Pollack, Yoav G.
Soft Condensed Matter
Biological Physics
Cellular renewing active matter - assemblies of proliferating and apoptotic cells - underlies tissue homeostasis, morphogenesis, and clonal competition. Previous work in one-dimensional periodic systems identified a fitness advantage associated with rapid dead-cell clearance, an "opportunistic" competition mechanism. Extending this framework, we study two-dimensional cellular aggregates and show that dimensionality modifies the interplay between competition mechanisms for clones with different clearance rates: in 2D, opportunistic and homeostatic-pressure-based competition jointly shape clonal selection, to varying degrees. We then introduce an explicit circular confinement to probe how boundaries modulate this interplay. While opportunistic competition persists, distinct timescale-dependent behaviors emerge through weakened homeostatic-pressure-based competition near boundaries. Structural analysis reveals that confinement promotes tangential alignment and spatially heterogeneous homeostatic pressure, thereby reshaping competitive outcomes at tissue edges. Our study connects newly discovered competition mechanisms with more realistic biological contexts, highlighting how dimensionality and spatial constraints influence tissue structures and modulate competition in heterogeneous cell populations, with implications for tumor growth dynamics and tissue development.
title Dimensionality and confinement reshape competition in cellular renewing active matter
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.01995