Jamming and arrest of cell motion in biological tissues

Collective cell motility is crucial to many biological processes including morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer invasion. Recently, the biology and biophysics communities have begun to use the term 'cell jamming' to describe the collective arrest of cell motion in tissues. Although this term is widely used, the underlying mechanisms are varied. In this review, we highlight three independent mechanisms that can potentially drive arrest of cell motion - crowding, tension-driven rigidity, and reduction of fluctuations - and propose a framework that connects all three. Because multiple mechanisms may be operating simultaneously, this emphasizes that experiments should strive to identify which mechanism dominates in a given situation. We also discuss how specific cell-scale and molecular-scale biological processes, such as cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions, control aspects of these underlying physical mechanisms.

Automated summary

Collective cell motility is crucial in biological processes, with the term 'cell jamming' used to describe the collective arrest of cell motion, driven by mechanisms such as crowding, tension-driven rigidity, and reduction of fluctuations. The review emphasizes the need to identify the dominant mechanism in a given situation, as multiple mechanisms may be operating simultaneously, and discusses how specific biological processes at cell and molecular scales control these physical mechanisms.