ArticleNature2017
Topological defects control collective dynamics in neural progenitor cell cultures.
Article in Nature, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 119 papers.
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Who cites it
119 citing papers in PubMed.
- A principal-stress rule for cell division in epithelia.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Predictability can be dynamically constructed in deterministic systems.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Extracellular-matrix mediated stresses spatially bias myoblast fusion and myotube growth.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Mechanics of compression-driven morphogenesis.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- Fibronectin matrix remodelling modulates the active nematic dynamics of cancer-associated fibroblasts.Nature materials · 2026Article
- Boundary geometry controls a topological defect transition that determines lumen nucleation in embryonic development.Nature materials · 2026Article
- Liquid crystal-like self-organization of glioblastoma is associated with consistent migration for high cell densities.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Nematic cell alignment directs calcium waves in an epithelial monolayer.Biophysical journal · 2026Article
- Actuation of Cell Layers in Three Dimensions.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
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- Coupling of colloidal rods to the dynamic order of active nematic films.Soft matter · 2026Article
- Topological control of spontaneous failure in active nematic solids.Nature materials · 2026Article
- From Polar Clusters to Active Nematics: Experimental Signatures of Swarming Dynamics in Bacterial Monolayers.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Topological signatures of collective dynamics and turbulent-like energy cascades in apolar active granular matter.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Boundary-guided cell alignment drives mouse epiblast maturation.Nature physics · 2026Article
- Shaping 3D minimal model tissues with mechanical constraints to orchestrate muscle differentiation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Mapping cell dynamics in human ex vivo hair follicles suggests pulling mechanism of hair growth.Nature communications · 2025Article
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- Nematic cell alignment directs calcium waves.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Myoblast Choreographic Alignment.ACS nano · 2025Article
59 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cultured stem cells have become a standard platform not only for regenerative medicine and developmental biology but also for biophysical studies. Yet, the characterization of cultured stem cells at the level of morphology and of the macroscopic patterns resulting from cell-to-cell interactions remains largely qualitative. Here we report on the collective dynamics of cultured murine neural progenitor cells (NPCs), which are multipotent stem cells that give rise to cells in the central nervous system. At low densities, NPCs moved randomly in an amoeba-like fashion. However, NPCs at high density elongated and aligned their shapes with one another, gliding at relatively high velocities. Although the direction of motion of individual cells reversed stochastically along the axes of alignment, the cells were capable of forming an aligned pattern up to length scales similar to that of the migratory stream observed in the adult brain. The two-dimensional order of alignment within the culture showed a liquid-crystalline pattern containing interspersed topological defects with winding numbers of +1/2 and -1/2 (half-integer due to the nematic feature that arises from the head-tail symmetry of cell-to-cell interaction). We identified rapid cell accumulation at +1/2 defects and the formation of three-dimensional mounds. Imaging at the single-cell level around the defects allowed us to quantify the velocity field and the evolving cell density; cells not only concentrate at +1/2 defects, but also escape from -1/2 defects. We propose a generic mechanism for the instability in cell density around the defects that arises from the interplay between the anisotropic friction and the active force field.
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