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Dynamics of Wound Closure in Living Nematic Epithelia

Henry Andralojc1,*, Jake Turley1,2,3, Helen Weavers3, Paul Martin3, Isaac V. Chenchiah1, Rachel R. Bennett1,4,†, and Tanniemola B. Liverpool1,4,‡

  • *Contact author: h.andralojc@bristol.ac.uk
  • †Contact author: rachel.bennett@bristol.ac.uk
  • ‡Contact author: t.liverpool@bristol.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 158402 – Published 16 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/8871-8m6c

Abstract

We study theoretically the closure of a wound in a layer of epithelial cells in a living tissue after damage. Our analysis is informed by our recent experiments observing reepithelialization in vivo of Drosophila pupae. On time and length scales such that the evolution of the epithelial tissue near the wound is well captured by that of a 2D active fluid with local nematic order, we consider the free-surface problem of a hole in a bounded region of tissue, and study the role that active stresses in the surrounding tissue play in the closure of the hole. For parallel anchored nematic order at the wound boundary (as we observe in our experiments), we find that closure is accelerated by contractile active stresses and is slowed down when the stresses are extensile. Parallel anchoring also leads to the appearance of topological defects that annihilate upon wound closure.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 158402– Published 16 April, 2026
  • Received 12 June 2025
  • Accepted 13 February 2026
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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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