Mechanical waves identify the amputation position during wound healing in the amputated zebrafish tailfin

Highly regenerative animals can regrow lost appendages and the rate of regrowth is proportional to the amount of appendage loss. This century-old phenomenon prompted us to investigate whether the mechanism of wound healing, as the first stage of regeneration, is responsible for discerning the amputa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature physics 2023-09, Vol.19 (9), p.1362-1370
Main Authors: De Leon, Marco P., Wen, Fu-Lai, Paylaga, Giovanni J., Wang, Ying-Ting, Roan, Hsiao-Yuh, Wang, Chung-Han, Hsiao, Chung-Der, Lin, Keng-Hui, Chen, Chen-Hui
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/57/2266
631/57/343/1361
Amputation
Appendages
Atomic
Classical and Continuum Physics
Complex Systems
Condensed Matter Physics
Density
Epithelium
Mathematical and Computational Physics
Molecular
Optical and Plasma Physics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Regeneration
Regrowth
Theoretical
Wave propagation
Waves
Wound healing
Zebrafish
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Summary:Highly regenerative animals can regrow lost appendages and the rate of regrowth is proportional to the amount of appendage loss. This century-old phenomenon prompted us to investigate whether the mechanism of wound healing, as the first stage of regeneration, is responsible for discerning the amputation position. In vitro studies have revealed great insights into the mechanics of the wound-healing process, including the identification of mechanical waves in collective epithelial cell expansion. It has been suggested that these mechanical waves may also be involved in positional sensing. Here we perform live-cell imaging on adult zebrafish tailfins to monitor the collective migration of basal epithelial cells on tailfin amputation. We observed a cell density wave propagating away from the amputation edge, with the maximum travelling distance proportional to the amputation level and cell proliferation at later stages. We developed a mechanical model to explain this wave behaviour, including the tension-dependent wave speed and amputation-dependent travelling distance. Together, our findings point to an in vivo positional sensing mechanism in regenerative tissues based on a coupling of mechanical signals manifested as a travelling density wave. It is known that mechanical waves play a role in collective motion in vitro. Now these waves can help an amputated zebrafish know where its fin was cut off to aid regeneration.
ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
DOI:10.1038/s41567-023-02103-6