Individual cell morphological analysis reveals epithelial chiral morphogenesis

Abstract

The expression of left-right asymmetry in biological tissue can be described as the chirality in cell alignment. Through development this biologically conserved property can be easily appreciated as the asymmetric positioning of organs and tissues, and asymmetric looping of tissues like the GI tract and the heart. It has been previously reported that various cell phenotypes have an intrinsic, unique, and well-conserved expression of asymmetry, and that changes in chiral expression due to genetic or environmental factors have been linked to tissue malformations and various disease states.