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Updated: Apr 25, 2026

Traction Microscopy Integrated with Microfluidics for Chemotactic Collective Migration
Published on: October 13, 2019
[Collective cell migrations]
Eric Theveneau1, Nicolas David2
1Centre de biologie du développement, unité mixte de recherche 5547, CNRS, université Paul Sabatier ; 118, route de Narbonne, 31400 Toulouse, France.
Abstract:
Historically centered on the study of individual cell motility, the field of cell migration has recently moved up one level to look at cooperative behaviour within migratory cell populations. It is now well established that numerous physiological and pathological migration events involve collectively migrating cells rather than solitary cells or concomitantly migrating individual cells. In this review, we first discuss the criteria allowing a given migratory event to be classified as collective cell migration. We then summarize the main concepts that rule collective cell migration in epithelial and mesenchymal tissues with a main focus on mechanisms controlling polarity and directionality in cell collectives.
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