Modeling epithelial tissues as active-elastic sheets reproduce contraction pulses and predict rip resistance

Abstract

Observations on confluent epithelial tissues show the emergence of dynamic contraction patterns that are suspected to be governed mechanically. Here, the authors propose a model for epithelial sheets and show that cells’ Extension-Induced-Contraction response explains experimentally-observed contraction pulses, that along with a cell softening response enhances epithelial resistance to rupture.