SHAPE OF EPITHELIAL CELLS AND AGGREGATES

March 26, 2022

What controls the shape of individual epithelial cells? Their typical forms are columnar, cuboidal, and squamous. Those cells form a simple, pseudo-stratified or stratified epithelium in various tissues/organs. For disease diagnosis, pathologists are primarily searching for abnormal pattern/shape within tissues. What controls cellular shapes and allocation within an epithelium? We recognize epithelial cells and epithelial structures have liquid-like properties. Epithelial cells can dynamically move within a structure, internalize into it, and detach from it without changing cell-cell adhesiveness like epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). Using a simple tissue culture system, more complex embryonic stem cells and organoids systems and preimplantation embryos, we investigate cellular and molecular mechanisms behind dynamic epithelial morphogenesis.