Polarized interfacial tension induces collective migration of cells, as a cluster, in a three-dimensional tissue

Abstract

Cells collectively migrate as a cluster in three-dimensional (3D) tissues, such as in embryogenesis and cancer invasion. Here, numerical simulations using a 3D vertex model show that polarized interfacial tension, expressing cell adhesion and cortex contractility, induces the cluster migration in the 3D space. The mechanism is that polarized interfacial tension induced a directional flow of cell-cell interfaces from the front to rear within the whole cluster, producing a driving force, i.e., cells move forward as a cluster by simply expanding and contracting cell-cell boundaries.