Collective cell migration is fundamental to biological form and function. It is also relevant to the formation and repair of organs and to various pathological situations, including metastatic propagation of cancer. Technological, experimental, and computational advancements have allowed the researchers to explore various aspects of collective migration, spanning from biochemical signalling to inter-cellular force transduction. Here, we summarize our current understanding of the mechanobiology of collective cell migration, limiting to epithelial tissues. On the basis of recent studies, we describe how cells sense and respond to guidance signals to orchestrate various modes of migration and identify the determining factors dictating leader–follower interactions. We highlight how the inherent mechanics of dense epithelial monolayers at multicellular length scale might instruct individual cells to behave collectively. On the basis of these findings, we propose that mechanical resilience, obtained by a certain extent of cell jamming, allows the epithelium to perform efficient collective migration during wound healing.

集体细胞迁移是生物学形式和功能的基础。它也与器官的形成和修复以及各种病理情况有关，包括癌症的转移性传播。技术，实验和计算方面的进步使研究人员能够探索集体迁移的各个方面，从生化信号传导到细胞间力传导。在这里，我们总结了我们目前对集体细胞迁移（仅限于上皮组织）的力学生物学的理解。在最近的研究的基础上，我们描述了细胞如何感知和响应指导信号以协调各种迁移模式，并确定决定领导者与跟随者相互作用的决定性因素。我们强调了密集的上皮单层在多细胞长度尺度上的内在机制可能如何指示单个细胞共同行为。基于这些发现，我们建议通过一定程度的细胞阻塞获得的机械弹性可以使上皮在伤口愈合过程中执行有效的集体迁移。