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Published on: October 13, 2019
Guidance of collective cell migration by substrate geometry
Kevin Doxzen1, Sri Ram Krishna Vedula, Man Chun Leong
1Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore117411.
Summary
Cell crowding and confinement in circles drive coordinated cell rotation, a key aspect of collective cell behavior. Movement speed decreases with higher cell density, revealing insights into tissue organization and migration.
Area of Science:
- Cellular biology
- Biophysics
- Developmental biology
Background:
- Collective behavior is crucial for biological processes like morphogenesis and tissue organization.
- Understanding factors influencing collective cell migration is vital for developmental and regenerative biology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how cell density, intercellular adhesion, and extracellular matrix (ECM) constraints regulate collective behavior in epithelial cell sheets.
- To explore the role of geometrical confinement in inducing coordinated cell movement.
Main Methods:
- Combined experimental approaches with numerical modeling.
- Utilized micropatterned circles to confine epithelial cells.
- Varied cell density and analyzed cell movement patterns.
Main Results:
- Geometrical confinement induced persistent, synchronized cell rotation dependent on cell density.
- Rotation speed decreased with increasing cell density.
- Collective rotation was observed up to 200 μm in diameter, moving as a solid body with uniform angular velocity.
Conclusions:
- Cellular confinement and density are critical regulators of collective cell rotation.
- The observed length scales of rotation are relevant to unconfined epithelial sheets.
- This behavior is altered in cells with downregulated adherens junctions and in cancerous cells, suggesting implications for disease.
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