A universal behaviour in polarized cell monolayers

Abstract In this work, we present a mathematical framework to model mechanical behaviours of a polarized cell monolayer based on a Cosserat elasticity theory of thin structures. We show that cell polarization must remain tangential at free boundaries, resulting in an experimentally observed behaviour called an ‘edge effect’. We show that this behaviour is independent of the cell type. Furthermore, we present Legendre–Hadamard inequalities that must be satisfied at equilibrium for it to be a stable configuration.