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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Constitutive model for the rheology of biological tissue

Suzanne M. Fielding1, James O. Cochran1, Junxiang Huang2, Dapeng Bi2, and M. Cristina Marchetti3

  • 1Department of Physics, Durham University, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
  • 2Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Massachusetts 02115, USA
  • 3Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA

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Phys. Rev. E 108, L042602 – Published 9 October, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.108.L042602

Abstract

The rheology of biological tissue is key to processes such as embryo development, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. Vertex models of confluent tissue monolayers have uncovered a spontaneous liquid-solid transition tuned by cell shape; and a shear-induced solidification transition of an initially liquidlike tissue. Alongside this jamming/unjamming behavior, biological tissue also displays an inherent viscoelasticity, with a slow time and rate-dependent mechanics. With this motivation, we combine simulations and continuum theory to examine the rheology of the vertex model in nonlinear shear across a full range of shear rates from quastistatic to fast, elucidating its nonlinear stress-strain curves after the inception of shear of finite rate, and its steady state flow curves of stress as a function of strain rate. We formulate a rheological constitutive model that couples cell shape to flow and captures both the tissue solid-liquid transition and its rich linear and nonlinear rheology.

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References (43)

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. E 108, L042602– Published 9 October, 2023
  • Received 7 October 2022
  • Revised 11 September 2023
  • Accepted 13 September 2023
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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