DLITE

DLITE estimates dynamic local intercellular tensions from time-series cell geometry to infer the temporal evolution of cell-cell forces in mechanical models of collective cell behavior.

Key Features:

• Temporal Force Inference: Estimates temporal evolution of intercellular forces across time series rather than treating each time point independently, enabling analysis of evolving cell shapes and connectivities.
• Robustness to Digitization Errors: Reduces sensitivity to connectivity errors, angle estimate inaccuracies, connection mislocalizations, and topological changes, with improved correlation to ground truth in synthetic geometries.
• Extension of Cellular Force-Inference Toolkit: Extends the cellular force-inference toolkit from single-time-point analyses to dynamic, time-resolved force inference.
• Validation and Application: Validated using synthetic geometries and applied to time series of human-induced pluripotent stem cell colonies expressing GFP-tagged zonulae occludentes-1, demonstrating improved stability of inferred tensions and correlation with colony rearrangement.

Scientific Applications:

• Collective cell behavior studies: Provides time-resolved intercellular tension estimates for analyses of collective cell dynamics.
• Developmental biology: Enables investigation of mechanical forces during morphogenesis.
• Tissue engineering: Supports study of mechanical regulation in engineered tissues.
• Cancer research: Facilitates analysis of force-related processes such as migration and rearrangement in cancer models.
• Stem cell colony mechanics: Applied to hiPSC colonies expressing GFP-tagged zonulae occludentes-1, informing regenerative medicine and disease modeling studies.

Methodology:

Extends mechanical-model-based force inference from the cellular force-inference toolkit to temporal sequences and validates inferred tension evolutions against synthetic geometries.