Authors:

Aditya Mallepalli

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About Paper:

Epithelial wound healing is important for maintaining tissue health and survival in multicellular organisms. When the tissue is damaged- whether by mechanical injury or laser ablation-it responds by activating several coordinated closure mechanisms. These include the contraction of an actomyosin ring around the wound, active crawling of cells toward the injury, and rearrangements driven by cell polarity. Although these mechanisms have been studied individually, their combined behavior and adaptation to different wound conditions remains poorly understood. This research investigates how mechanical feedback-especially, a stretch-induced increase in cellular contractility-affects the healing process. Computational vertex modeling is used to simulate wound healing and examine how changes in wound area or tissue properties affect healing outcomes. The model incorporates a mechanosensitive feedback mechanism, based on experimental observations, in which tissue stretch leads to increased contractile forces in cells. Initial simulation results indicate that at certain conditions mechanosensation has an unexpected role of delaying rather than accelerating the healing process. This preliminary result is congruent with some experimental observations and suggests that feedback loops in the system of mechanical signaling may be more complicated than previously thought. This work compares a range of different configurations of models and wound types, to begin to understand when and how different mechanisms of healing emerge. This work will generate a framework for quantitatively interpreting experimental evidence and details how cells coordinate mechanical forces during tissue repair. These insights may help identify conserved healing strategies across species and guide future research on tissue regeneration. Keywords: Computational Vertex Modeling; Epithelial Wound Healing; Mechanical Feedback

Source:

Purdue University / 2025

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Aditya Mallepalli