SKM 2023 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 28: Poster Session II

BP 28.48: Poster

Thursday, March 30, 2023, 18:00–20:00, P2/EG

Stem Cell Dynamics in Tissues — •Johannes C. Krämer, Gerhard Gompper, and Jens Elgeti — Theoretical Physics of Living Matter (IBI-5/IAS-2), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany

The renewal of epidermal tissue relies on a few stem cells dividing asymmetrically, and a cascade of transient amplifying cells resulting in the necessary cell mass of terminally differentiated cells. We integrated this process in the two-particle growth model, and find that this simple process results in very interesting dynamic features: Stem cells repel each other in the tissue bulk and are thus found rather isolated in the tissue.

Simulating just two isolated stem cells, we construct the probability density function to find two stem cells in a given distance, and observe a reduced probability to find stem cells close to each other. To understand this repulsive mechanism better, we apply equilibrium methods to construct an effective interaction potential. Although a massive simplification it allows us describe the repulsive interaction in a simple fashion. Thermal colloid simulations, where particles interact via the effective interaction, are consistent with simulations of bulk tissues.

Our findings may contribute to better understand the cancer stem cell hypothesis. Here, cancerous growth is assumed to emerge from few stem cell like cancer cells, which might evade being targeted by therapy. However, the cancer stem cells are difficult to observe – maybe because they get separated by this mechanism.