https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-024-00407-w
Regular Article - Living Systems
Many-body interactions between contracting living cells
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shamoon College of Engineering, 77245, Ashdod, Israel
2
School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel
3
Center for Physics and Chemistry of Living Systems, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel
4
Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel
5
International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter, Hiroshima University, 739-8526, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
Received:
15
September
2023
Accepted:
25
January
2024
Published online:
19
February
2024
The organization of live cells into tissues and their subsequent biological function involves inter-cell mechanical interactions, which are mediated by their elastic environment. To model this interaction, we consider cells as spherical active force dipoles surrounded by an unbounded elastic matrix. Even though we assume that this elastic medium responds linearly, each cell’s regulation of its mechanical activity leads to nonlinearities in the emergent interactions between cells. We study the many-body nature of these interactions by considering several geometries that include three or more cells. We show that for different regulatory behaviors of the cells’ activity, the total elastic energy stored in the medium differs from the superposition of all two-body interactions between pairs of cells within the system. Specifically, we find that the many-body interaction energy between cells that regulate their position is smaller than the sum of interactions between all pairs of cells in the system, while for cells that do not regulate their position, the many-body interaction is larger than the superposition prediction. Thus, such higher-order interactions should be considered when studying the mechanics of multiple cells in proximity.
We dedicate this article to Fyl Pincus, who promoted the field of soft matter forward, both by his own scientific achievements, and more importantly by him pushing and encouraging young scientists in the field. As he always says, “if you’re in equilibrium, you’re dead”.
© The Author(s) 2024
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