Mechanical Effects of Cellular Activities During Optic-cup Morphogenesis

During tissue morphogenesis, deformation of multi-cellular tissues proceeds by coordinated cellular activities, such as proliferation and constriction. For example, during optic-cup formation in an early eye development, neural retina, which is the distal region of the spherical optic vesicle, invaginates to form a two-walled cup-like structure. Previous study suggests that the deformation of retinal tissues is caused by mechanical effects of cellular proliferation and constriction. To understand the mechanism of the tissue morphogenesis, it is essential to understand how cellular activities mechanically influence the tissue deformation. However, the mechanical effects of cellular activities are still unknown because it is difficult to investigate the mechanical state in multi-cellular tissues through experimental approach. In this study, therefore, we performed computer simulation of optic-cup morphogenesis considering cell proliferation and constriction. Our simulation demonstrated the invagination process by incorporating non-uniform growth and relaxation of constriction, indicating that these two factors are necessary for the invagination.