The Thermodynamics of Cell Sorting

ABSTRACT: The simple extended Potts model, which approximates the interactions between cells in contact as a uniform, type dependent surface energy and uses a simple Monte Carlo dynamics, is able to reproduce many observed qualitative behaviors of cell aggregates. The motion of single cells in an aggregate is identical to Brownian motion of ideal particles--hence the temperature in the model corresponds to the fluctuation temperature of the cell membrane. Using appropriate experimental parameters allows the model to quantitatively reproduce both normal and partial cell sorting. 1. INTRODUCTION: Ou