Can cell mortality determine division of labor in tissue organization?

Author-Highlights
• I study by a mathematical model the role of division of labor in tissue optimality.
• The results show that cell turn-over imposes an inevitable reduction in function abilities.
• Reduction of function is smaller when division of labor is at work.
• Analytical results are in agreement with the experimental data available in literature.
• I explain why division of labor is a successful strategy at high cell-renewal.

Tissue organization comes from the emergence of cell cooperation where cell homeostasis and function are performed as a trade-off of two excluding proliferative and differentiated cellular states. By introducing function in a population dynamics approach, I study the role of division of labor in tissue optimality when cell turn-over and limitation of space and resources are imposed as natural restrictions of a living tissue. The results indicate that although cell turn-over imposes a inevitable reduction in function abilities, the penalty is smaller when division of labor is at work, especially when a rapid cell-turnover and high cell density is a requirement for the tissue, as occurred in epithelia hierarchical tissues. Analytic results are in agreement with the experimental data available in literature. The study provides an explanation about why homogeneous tissues for which proliferative and functional tasks are performed by a same cell type are unlikely to be observed under high cell-renewal requirements.