Mechanical impacts of complex topology on epithelial cells*

Although complex curvatures are general features of in-vivo tissues where the fundamental biological functions are performed in our bodies, no in-depth study on the impact of complex curvature has been provided yet. In the current study, we found that strong mechanical impacts of complex topology on the epithelial system. With a great advantage of a torus having positive, zero, negative Gaussian curvature in a single structure, we demonstrated that the cells on tori showed polarized architecture than that of a flat surface. In addition, the cells manipulate the cellular mechanical elements to gain physically stable conditions. The current study sheds light on the mechanical adaption of cells on complex topology by which the relevance can be expanded in the in-vivo biological processes such as tumorigenicity and morphogenesis, also can provide insights on the design of biomaterials, tissue engineering and organoid/organ-on-a-chips.