Abstract
Cell growth, division, and death are defining features of biological tissues that contribute to morphogenesis. In hydrodynamic descriptions of cohesive tissues, their occurrence implies a nonzero rate of variation of cell density. We show how linear nonequilibrium thermodynamics allows us to express this rate as a combination of relevant thermodynamic forces: chemical potential, velocity divergence, and activity. We illustrate the resulting effects of the nonconservation of cell density on simple examples inspired by recent experiments on cell monolayers, considering first the velocity of a spreading front, and second an instability leading to mechanical waves.
2 More- Received 15 September 2016
- Revised 16 May 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.96.022406
©2017 American Physical Society