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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 4: Tissue Mechanics I
BP 4.5: Talk
Monday, March 27, 2023, 16:15–16:30, BAR Schö
Harnessing active viscoelasticity for synthetic epithelial morphogenesis — •Nimesh Ramesh Chahare1,2, Adam Ouzeri2, Tom Golde1, Thomas Wilson1,3, Pere Roca-Cusachs1, Marino Arroyo2,3, and Xavier Trepat1,4 — 1Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain — 2Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain — 3Centre Internacional de Mètodes Numèrics en Enginyeria, Barcelona, Spain — 4Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain
Epithelial sheets are active viscoelastic materials that form specialized 3D structures suited to their physiological roles, such as branched alveoli in the lungs, tubes in the kidney, and villi in the intestine. How epithelial shape arises from active viscoelasticity and luminal pressure remains poorly understood. Here we developed a microfluidic setup to engineer 3D epithelial tissues with controlled shape and pressure. Through this approach, we subject the tissues to a range of lumen pressures at different rates and probe the relation between strain and tension in different regimes. Slow pressure changes relative to the timescales of actin dynamics allow the tissue to accommodate large strain variations. However, under sudden pressure reductions, the tissue buckles and folds to store excess tissue area. This behavior is well captured by a 3D computational model that incorporates the turnover, viscoelasticity, and contractility of the actomyosin cortex. Informed by this model, we harness the active behavior of the cell cortex to pattern epithelial folds by rationally directed buckling. Our study establishes a new approach to engineering epithelial morphogenetic events.