Excitable dynamics driven by mechanical feedback in biological tissues

Abstract

Pulsatory activity patterns, driven by mechanochemical feedback, are prevalent in many biological systems. However, the role of cellular mechanics and geometry in the propagation of pulsatory signals remains poorly understood. Here we present a theoretical framework to elucidate the mechanical origin and regulation of pulsatile activity patterns within excitable multicellular tissues. We show that a simple mechanical feedback at the level of individual cells – activation of contractility upon stretch and subsequent inactivation upon turnover of active elements – is sufficient to explain the emergence of quiescent states, long-range wave propagation, and traveling activity pulse at the tissue-level. We find that the transition between a propagating pulse and a wave is driven by the competition between timescales associated with cellular mechanical response and geometrical disorder in the tissue. This sheds light on the fundamental role of cell packing geometry on tissue excitability and spatial propagation of activity patterns. Many excitable systems share a common feedback motif, but how such feedback acts on biomechanical systems remains largely unexplored. By extending the cellular vertex models to incorporate mechanochemical feedback and excitability, the authors explore how cellular mechanics and geometry regulate the propagation of active stresses in excitable media.