Modelling the Dynamics of Epithelial Tissue

Abstract

Jamming behaviour has been observed in epithelial tissue. We tried to get more insight into jamming behaviour in monolayers of cells through numerical modelling. In our simulation epithelial cells were modelled as soft-potential spheres and soft-potential dumbbells. Oscillations in cell length and size were used to study the effect of deformation of cells on the collective dynamics of epithelial tissue. Jamming was observed in systems of passive disks, but jamming disappeared as cell oscillations were introduced. All simulated systems with dumbbells were linearly diffusive. Adding oscillations to the dumbbells increased the diffusivity of the system, especially at higher densities. The model of oscillating dumbbells used in this thesis was successful in showing the effect of oscillations on the dynamics of diffusive systems. However, it did not succeed in simulating jamming. For future research it will be necessary to look further into creating a different model of deforming epithelial cells if we want to study jamming behaviour.