Cell mechanics, environmental geometry, and cell polarity control cell–cell collision outcomes

Interactions between crawling cells, which are essential for many biological processes, can be quantified by measuring cell-cell collisions. Conventionally, experiments of cell-cell collisions are conducted on two-dimensional flat substrates, where colliding cells repolarize and move away upon contact with one another in "contact inhibition of locomotion" (CIL). Inspired by recent experiments that show cells on suspended nanofibers have qualitatively different CIL behaviors than those on flat substrates, we develop a phase field model of cell motility and two-cell collisions in fiber geometries. Our model includes cell-cell and cell-fiber adhesion, and a simple positive feedback mechanism of cell polarity. We focus on cell collisions on two parallel fibers, finding that larger cell deformability (lower membrane tension), larger positive feedback of polarization, and larger fiber spacing promote more occurrences of cells walking past one another. We can capture this behavior using a simple linear stability analysis on the cell-cell interface upon collision.