The limits of scaling in aggregation-driven patterning of cell collectives.

Cell aggregation is the initial event in de novo posterior pole formation in dissociated embryonic presomitic mesoderm cells, and scaling is limited by the time available for aggregation-driven patterning.

• Why it matters: Robust development must preserve correct proportions as size changes, but how mechanical and biochemical embryonic factors constrain scaling is not well understood.
• What they did: The authors combined confinement of dissociated embryonic presomitic mesoderm cells with imaging and chemical perturbations, then used a continuum model with only cell-cell attraction to predict scaling limits.
• The result: Small systems show rapid, robust pattern scaling, while coarsening dynamics substantially delay scaled patterns in large systems, and experiments quantitatively confirm these predicted regimes.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.