Interdependence Theory of Tissue Failure: Bulk and Boundary Effects

The mortality rate of many complex multicellular organisms increase with age, which suggests that net aging damage is accumulative, despite remodeling processes. But how exactly do little mishaps in the cellular level accumulate and spread to become a systemic catastrophe? To address this question we present experiments with synthetic tissues, an analytical model consistent with experiments, and a number of implications that follow the analytical model. Our theoretical framework describes how shape, curvature and density influences the propagation of failure in a tissue subject to oxidative damage. We propose that aging is an emergent property governed by interaction between cells, and that intercellular processes play a role that are at least as important as intracellular ones.