Collective cell migration is crucial in many biological processes such as wound healing, tissue morphogenesis, and tumor progression. The leading front of a collective migrating epithelial cell layer often destabilizes into multicellular finger-like protrusions, each of which is guided by a leader cell at the fingertip. Here, we develop a subcellular-element-based model of this fingering instability, which incorporates leader cells and other related properties of a monolayer of epithelial cells. Our model recovers multiple aspects of the dynamics, especially the traction force patterns and velocity fields, observed in experiments on Madin–Darby canine kidney cells. Our model predicts the necessity of the leader cell and its minimal functions for the formation and maintenance of a stable finger pattern. Meanwhile, our model allows for an analysis of the role of supracellular actin cable on the leading front, predicting that while this observed structure helps maintain the shape o...

中文翻译：

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前导细胞驱动的上皮片指法。

在许多生物过程中，例如伤口愈合，组织形态发生和肿瘤进展，集体细胞迁移至关重要。集体迁移的上皮细胞层的前端通常不稳定，变成多细胞的手指状突起，每个突起均由指尖处的前端细胞引导。在这里，我们开发这种指法不稳定性的基于亚细胞元素的模型，其中包含前导细胞和上皮细胞单层的其他相关属性。我们的模型恢复了动力学的多个方面，尤其是在Madin-Darby犬肾细胞实验中观察到的牵引力模式和速度场。我们的模型预测了前导细胞的必要性及其对于形成和维持稳定的指形的最低功能。与此同时，