Transepithelial potential difference governs epithelial homeostasis by electromechanics
Abstract Studies of electric effects in biological systems, from the historical experiments of Galvani 1 and the ground-breaking work on action potential2 to studies on limb regeneration3 or wound healing4, share the common feature of being concerned with transitory behavior and not addressing the question of homeostasis. Here using a novel microfluidic device, we study how the homeostasis of confluent epithelial tissues is modified when a trans-epithelial electric potential (TEPD) different from the natural one is imposed on an epithelial layer. We show that epithelial fate is dependent on TEPD of few Volts/cm similar to the endogenous one. When the field direction matches the natural one, we can restore a perfect confluence in an epithelial layer turned defective either by E-cadherin knock-out or by weakening cell-substrate adhesion; additionally, the tissue pushes on the substrate with kilo-Pascals stress, inducing active cell response such as death and differentiation. When the field is opposite, homeostasis is destroyed by the perturbation of junctional actin and cell shapes, and the formation of dynamical mounds5, while the tissue pulls with similar strengths. Most of these observations can be quantitatively explained by an electro-hydrodynamic theory involving local electro-osmotic flows. We expect this work to motivate further studies on long time effects of electromechanical pathways with important tissue engineering applications.