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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 29: Multicellular Systems
BP 29.6: Talk
Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 11:30–11:45, H45
Biaxial nematic order in liver tissue — •Andre Scholich1, Hidenori Nonaka2, Hernán Morales-Navarrete2, Fabián Segovia Miranda2, Kirstin Meyer2, Yannis Kalaidzidis2, Marino Zerial2, Benjamin Friedrich1, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Dresden — 2Max-Plank-Institut für Zellbiologie und Genetik, Dresden
Tissue cells typically exhibit an anisotropic distribution of membrane proteins that characterizes a structural polarity of the cell. This 'cell polarity' is linked to function, such as directed transport. In cellular monolayers and various epithelial tissues, cells are known to exhibit a vectorial cell polarity with distinct domains of apical and basal membrane proteins at opposite sides of the cell that face the two boundary surfaces of the flat tissue. Here, we analyze cells of a bulk tissue, the liver. We propose a concept of biaxial cell nematic to describe the distinct anisotropy of membrane proteins in hepatocyte liver cells. Analyzing high-resolution two-photon microscopy images of mouse liver, we find spatial patterns of aligned cell axes at the tissue scale. These spatial patterns characterize liver tissue as a biaxial nematic. Spatial patterns are well-accounted for by a curvilinear reference system set by structural landmarks of large veins within the liver tissue. We discuss minimal mechanisms of cell-scale interactions that can account for the emergence of these tissue-scale patterns.