Tissue failure propagation as mediated by circulatory flow

Abstract

Aging is driven by subcellular processes that are relatively well-understood. However the qualitative mechanisms and quantitative dynamics of how these micro-level failures cascade to a macro-level catastrophe in a tissue or organs remain largely unexplored. Here we experimentally and theoretically study how cell failure propagates in a synthetic tissue in the presence of advective flow. We argue that cells secrete cooperative factors, thereby forming a network of interdependence governed by diffusion and flow, which fails with a propagating front parallel to advective circulation.