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arxiv: 2509.04316 · v1 · submitted 2025-09-04 · ❄️ cond-mat.soft · physics.bio-ph· q-bio.TO

Control of lumen morphology by lateral and basal cell surfaces

Chandraniva Guha Ray , Markus Mukenhirn , Alf Honigmann , Pierre A. Haas This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-18 19:08 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ❄️ cond-mat.soft physics.bio-phq-bio.TO
keywords lumen morphologyepithelial cystsvertex modelcell contractilitytight junctionsMDCK cystsshape instabilityapical surface
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The pith

Epithelial cysts stabilize lumen shape by boosting lateral contractility after apical perturbations.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper examines how fluid-filled lumina in MDCK cysts maintain their morphology through mechanical forces acting on different parts of the cell surfaces. When tight junction perturbations trigger apical surface instability, the cells adjust not only pressure and apical tension but also increase lateral and basal tensions. A mean-field three-dimensional vertex model matches the observed shape changes and shows that the rise in lateral contractility functions as a direct cellular countermeasure to restore stability. This coordinated adjustment across all surfaces, rather than apical control alone, determines the final lumen form. The finding matters because it explains a basic mechanical strategy tissues use to preserve architecture during development and repair.

Core claim

Cysts respond to tight junction perturbations by modulating their lateral and basal tensions in addition to pressure and apical belt tension. The mean-field three-dimensional vertex model reproduces the experimental shape instability quantitatively. This reveals that the observed increase of lateral contractility is a cellular response that counters the instability, showing how regulation of the mechanics of all cell surfaces conspires to control lumen morphology.

What carries the argument

The mean-field three-dimensional vertex model that incorporates uniform modulations of pressure together with apical, lateral, and basal tensions to match observed cyst shapes.

If this is right

  • Lumen morphology results from coordinated tension changes at apical, lateral, and basal surfaces rather than apical mechanics alone.
  • The rise in lateral contractility directly counters apical instability to preserve cyst shape.
  • Mean-field vertex models suffice to predict the instability using only measured tension modulations.
  • Regulation of all cell-surface mechanics is required for proper control of enclosed lumen geometry.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • Similar tension-based stabilization may operate in other epithelial tubes or vesicles where lumen pressure varies.
  • Disrupting lateral contractility pathways could produce predictable shape defects useful for testing in organoid models.
  • The uniform-cell assumption suggests that population-level tension measurements can guide predictions even without single-cell resolution.

Load-bearing premise

The mean-field three-dimensional vertex model with uniform cell properties and tension modulations can quantitatively reproduce the experimental shape instability without additional unmodeled factors such as cell-to-cell variability.

What would settle it

Direct measurement showing that preventing the increase in lateral contractility still allows stable lumen shapes, or that the vertex model fails to predict shapes once lateral tension changes are blocked, would falsify the central claim.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2509.04316 by Alf Honigmann, Chandraniva Guha Ray, Markus Mukenhirn, Pierre A. Haas.

Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: FIG. 2. Experimental quantification of contractility and adhesion across all cell surfaces wild-type (WT), ZO-KO, and CLDN-KO MDCK-II [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p003_2.png] view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. Figure 3: FIG. 3. Mean-field model of the instability of lumen morphology. (a) Geometry of a spherical lumen of radius [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p005_3.png] view at source ↗
Figure 5
Figure 5. Figure 5: FIG. 5. Additional model predictions. (a) At zero pressure ( [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p009_5.png] view at source ↗
read the original abstract

Across development, the morphology of fluid-filled lumina enclosed by epithelial tissues arises from an interplay of lumen pressure, mechanics of the cell cortex, and cell-cell adhesion. Here, we explore the mechanical basis for the control of this interplay using the shape space of MDCK cysts and the instability of their apical surfaces under tight junction perturbations [Mukenhirn et al., Dev. Cell 59, 2886 (2024)]. We discover that the cysts respond to these perturbations by significantly modulating their lateral and basal tensions, in addition to the known modulations of pressure and apical belt tension. We develop a mean-field three-dimensional vertex model of these cysts that reproduces the experimental shape instability quantitatively. This reveals that the observed increase of lateral contractility is a cellular response that counters the instability. Our work thus shows how regulation of the mechanics of all cell surfaces conspires to control lumen morphology.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

2 major / 2 minor

Summary. The manuscript examines how MDCK cysts control lumen morphology through coordinated mechanics of apical, lateral, and basal cell surfaces. Using tight-junction perturbations, the authors measure changes in lumen pressure, apical belt tension, and lateral/basal tensions. They introduce a mean-field three-dimensional vertex model that is reported to reproduce the observed apical-surface instability quantitatively, leading to the conclusion that the measured increase in lateral contractility functions as a cellular response that stabilizes lumen shape.

Significance. If the quantitative reproduction is robust, the work provides evidence that epithelial lumen morphology is controlled by the joint regulation of all three cell-surface classes rather than apical tension and pressure alone. The experimental observation of tension modulation supplies independent grounding, and the modeling framework offers a concrete way to test how changes in lateral contractility counteract shape instabilities. This advances understanding of multi-surface mechanical feedback in tissue morphogenesis.

major comments (2)
  1. [Model section] Model section (around the description of the mean-field 3D vertex model): The claim that the model reproduces the experimental shape instability quantitatively is central to attributing the lateral-tension increase as a counteracting response. However, the manuscript does not report the specific numerical values of the lateral and basal tensions employed, the fitting procedure used to match shapes, or quantitative agreement metrics (e.g., RMS deviation or overlap scores between simulated and observed cyst cross-sections). Without these, it is not possible to determine whether the lateral-tension increase is required or whether other parameter combinations could produce equivalent instability thresholds.
  2. [Results section] Results section discussing model-experiment comparison: The mean-field assumption of uniform cell properties and tensions is used throughout. No test is presented of how cell-to-cell variability in tension or adhesion would shift the instability threshold or allow alternative combinations of apical, lateral, and basal parameters to match the same shapes. If heterogeneity alters the critical tension values, the necessity of the observed lateral-contractility increase could be reduced, weakening the attribution of a specific counteracting response.
minor comments (2)
  1. [Figure legends] Figure legends for the model outputs should explicitly state which parameters are taken directly from experiment and which are adjusted to achieve the reported quantitative match.
  2. [Abstract and main text] The abstract states that the model reproduces the instability 'quantitatively,' but the main text does not define the precise meaning of this term (e.g., within a stated tolerance on curvature or volume). Clarifying this definition would strengthen the central claim.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for the constructive comments, which help clarify the presentation of our modeling results. We address each major point below and will revise the manuscript to incorporate additional details where feasible.

read point-by-point responses

  1. Referee: [Model section] Model section (around the description of the mean-field 3D vertex model): The claim that the model reproduces the experimental shape instability quantitatively is central to attributing the lateral-tension increase as a counteracting response. However, the manuscript does not report the specific numerical values of the lateral and basal tensions employed, the fitting procedure used to match shapes, or quantitative agreement metrics (e.g., RMS deviation or overlap scores between simulated and observed cyst cross-sections). Without these, it is not possible to determine whether the lateral-tension increase is required or whether other parameter combinations could produce equivalent instability thresholds.

    Authors: We agree that explicit reporting of these details is necessary for full evaluation of the model's robustness. In the revised manuscript we will add the specific numerical values of the lateral and basal tensions (obtained from experimental measurements and used in the simulations), a description of the fitting procedure employed to match cyst cross-sections, and quantitative agreement metrics including RMS deviation and overlap scores between simulated and experimental shapes. These additions will confirm that the observed increase in lateral contractility is required to reproduce the instability threshold. revision: yes

  2. Referee: [Results section] Results section discussing model-experiment comparison: The mean-field assumption of uniform cell properties and tensions is used throughout. No test is presented of how cell-to-cell variability in tension or adhesion would shift the instability threshold or allow alternative combinations of apical, lateral, and basal parameters to match the same shapes. If heterogeneity alters the critical tension values, the necessity of the observed lateral-contractility increase could be reduced, weakening the attribution of a specific counteracting response.

    Authors: The mean-field model is intended to represent average mechanical behavior consistent with our population-level experimental measurements of tension modulation. While we did not perform explicit simulations with cell-to-cell variability, such heterogeneity would be expected to broaden rather than eliminate the instability threshold, preserving the requirement for elevated lateral contractility to stabilize lumen shape. In the revision we will add a discussion of this limitation together with a qualitative assessment of how variability might influence the critical parameters. revision: partial

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity: experimental tension measurements provide independent input to the vertex model

full rationale

The paper first reports experimental discovery of modulated lateral and basal tensions in response to tight-junction perturbations. These measured values are then supplied to a mean-field 3D vertex model whose output is compared against the observed shape instability. Because the tension parameters originate from direct measurement rather than being tuned to force agreement with the instability data, and because the prior citation [Mukenhirn et al.] supplies only the perturbation protocol rather than the present mechanical interpretation, the derivation chain remains self-contained and does not reduce to its own inputs by construction. The quantitative match therefore constitutes a genuine test rather than a tautology.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

1 free parameters · 1 axioms · 0 invented entities

Only the abstract is available, so the ledger is based on stated elements: the vertex model is assumed to capture cell mechanics, and tension values are adjusted to match data.

free parameters (1)
  • lateral and basal tension values
    Tensions on lateral and basal surfaces are modulated in the model to reproduce the experimental instability; specific values are not given in the abstract but are central to the quantitative match.
axioms (1)
  • domain assumption The mean-field 3D vertex model accurately represents the mechanical behavior of MDCK cyst cells under tight junction perturbation.
    Invoked when stating that the model reproduces the shape instability quantitatively.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5695 in / 1282 out tokens · 34714 ms · 2026-05-18T19:08:26.192246+00:00 · methodology

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Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

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