Cell bulging and extrusion in a three-dimensional bubbly vertex model for curved epithelial sheets

Abstract: Cell extrusion is an essential mechanism for controlling cell density in epithelial tissues. Another essential element of epithelia is curvature, which is required to achieve complex shapes, like in the lung or intestine. Here we introduce a three-dimensional bubbly vertex model to study the interplay between extrusion and curvature. We find a generic cellular bulging instability at topological defects which is much stronger than for standard vertex models. To clarify the underlying mechanism, we analytically calculate the energy landscape for a single bulging cell in a mean field tissue. We find that extrusion is energetically preferred at topological defects due to a redistribution of Gaussian curvature into the defect. We show that it can be driven both by a decrease in apico-basal tension or by contractile line tensions. We also show that extrusion can be suppressed by luminal pressure and interfacial bending rigidity, allowing for additional control of this important process. Our theory suggests that epithelial curvature naturally leads to cell bulging and extrusion because the interfacial curvature of individual cells at the defects strongly amplifies buckling effected by tissue-scale topological defects in elastic sheets.