ECM-driven tissue folding

2022 — EPJ Plus. Topic: Mechanobiology

Schematic and model fits of ECM softening inducing epithelial folding — **Local changes in the extracellular matrix reshape a growing epithelium.** Degrading the ECM induces strong tissue bending, which is reproduced by a mechanical model treating the epithelium as a growing elastic bilayer.

Epithelial tissues are often described through the mechanics of their cell layer, but cells are mechanically coupled to an underlying extracellular matrix (ECM). We show that this two-layered organization can play a central role in shaping growing tissues. In the Drosophila wing imaginal disc, locally degrading the ECM is sufficient to produce strong changes in tissue curvature.

We model the epithelium as a growing elastic bilayer, extending plate theory to account for differences in growth, stiffness and thickness between the cell layer and the ECM. The model shows how local changes in these mechanical properties can generate bending and folding, and reproduces the tissue shapes observed experimentally.

Publications

Ackermann, Qu, LeGoff*, Ben Amar* (2022). Modeling the mechanics of growing epithelia with a bilayer plate theory. EPJ Plus 137:8. link