Quantitative comparison between differential adhesion models and cell sorting in the presence and absence of fluctuations

Abstract

We study the effect of inhibition of cell-membrane ruffling on cell sorting in experiments and simulations. We use aggregates of neural retinal and pigmented retinal cells obtained from chicken embryos and inhibit membrane ruffling by adding the drug cytochalasin B to the culture medium. Simulations using the large-Q Potts model with differential adhesivity, with the simulation temperature controlling the membrane ruffling amplitude, agree quantitatively with the experimental results for both normal and low fluctuation sorting, providing strong support for the validity of the model. In both cases, inhibition of ruffling prevents large scale cell sorting.