Effects of 3D Geometries on Cellular Gradient Sensing and Polarization

During cell migration, cells become polarized, change their shape, and move in response to various cues, both internal and external. Many existing mathematical models of cell polarization are formulated in one or two spatial dimensions and hence cannot accurately capture the effect of cell shape, as well as the response of the cell to signals from different directions in a three-dimensional environment. To study those effects, we introduce a three-dimensional reaction-diffusion model of a cell. As some key molecules in cell polarization, such as the small GTPases, can exist both membrane bound and soluble in the cytosol, we first look at the role of cell geometry on the membrane binding/unbinding dynamics of such molecules. We derive quite general conditions under which effective existing one or two-dimensional computational models are valid, and find novel renormalizations of parameters in the effective model. We then extend an established one-dimensional cell polarization pathway in our three-dimensional framework. Our simulations indicate that even in some quasi-one-dimensional scenarios, such as polarization of a cell along a linear growth factor gradient, the cell shape can influence the polarization behavior of the cell, with cells of some shape polarizing more efficiently than those of other shapes. We also investigate the role of the previously ignored membrane unbinding rate on polarization. Furthermore, we simulate the response of the cell when the external signal is changing directions, and we find that more symmetric cells can change their polarized state more effectively towards the new stimulus than cells which are elongated along the direction of the original stimulus.