Fig. 6: Multiscale tissue mechanics set up morphogenetic field for WIHN. | Nature Communications

Fig. 6: Multiscale tissue mechanics set up morphogenetic field for WIHN.

From: Symmetry breaking of tissue mechanics in wound induced hair follicle regeneration of laboratory and spiny mice

Fig. 6

a AFM stiffness mapping demonstrates the stiffness of the hair placode. This is based on experimental data. Top left: an AFM cantilever scanning a PWD14 wound. Blue box demarcates the 100 × 100 μm scanning area. Below: stiffness heatmap of a placode. Colorimetric unit: kPa. Right panel: Dot plot showing the stiffness of placode with respect to wound margin and center. Representative image of 3 out of 3 experiments. n = 9 regions examined over 3 independent biological animals. Data are presented as mean values ± SD. p < 0.0001, unpaired two-sided t-test. a′ Schematic diagram of placode stiffness and its respective cross-sectional view. b Hypothetical model showing feedback loop in a Turing system with an underlying measure of stiffness. Simulations illustrating stationary distributions of u (activator, blue background blocks) and E (stiffness, pick background blocks) with increasing s (source coefficient, measures the strength of the E source). The underlying ___domain is a square of side length 100 and the color shows the value of S at each grid point, S(x, y). The ‘size’ of the soft region is controlled by σ. From left to right and then the row below, the values of s are 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, and σ = 20. In all cases random initial conditions from a uniform distribution of [0.5, 1.5] are used. c Schematic drawing showing the opposite topology of morphogenetic competent and non-competent region in the wound bed. d Conceptual summary of the way we perceive the relationship between tissue stiffness and morphogenetic field (Top). Summary based on data from Figs. 1 and 2. Middle: It highlights the different geographic distribution of the morphogenetic field (green) within a wound bed (red frame), and also the periodic appearance of hair primordia (orange) within the morphogenetic field (green). When the wound stiffness is too low (blue), no placode can form. Bottom: Stiffness of different wound beds predicate distribution of morphogenetic field and placode formation.

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