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  • Open Access

Cellular Flow Architecture Exposes the Hidden Mechanics of Biological Matter

Tianxiang Ma*, Valeriia Grudtsyna*, Robin V. Bölsterli, and Amin Doostmohammadi†

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: doostmohammadi@nbi.ku.dk
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PRX Life 3, 043012 – Published 18 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2vzk-6ldz

Abstract

Understanding how biomechanical reorganization governs key biological processes, such as morphogenesis and development, requires predictive insights into stress distributions and cellular behavior. While traditional approaches focused on cell motion as a response to stress, we demonstrate that Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs)—robust attractors and repellers in cellular flows—precede and drive long-term intercellular stress reorganization, physically governed by the mechanical properties of intercellular junctions. We show that this hidden flow skeleton correlates strongly with biomechanical metrics, bridging microscopic cell motion with mesoscopic biomechanics. Specifically, attractors and repellers mark hotspots of compressive and tensile stress enrichment (exceeding tenfold), alongside heterogeneities in cell packing. Notably, these connections remain robust across varying strengths of cell-cell and cell-substrate force transmission. Finally, by linking the attracting regions in the flow skeleton to future cell extrusion spots, we establish a direct link between cell motion and biologically significant outcomes. Together, these findings establish a framework for using cell motion to independently infer biomechanical metrics and bridge the scale mismatch between cell motion and biomechanics, potentially offering a new route to interpret mechanosensitive biological processes directly from cell trajectories.

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PRX Life 3, 043012– Published 18 November, 2025
  • Received 7 May 2025
  • Accepted 8 October 2025
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