Biomechanics and Biomaterials Laboratory, Department of Applied Mechanics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Biofabrication. 2013 Mar;5(1):015011. doi: 10.1088/1758-5082/5/1/015011. Epub 2013 Jan 10.
Cell shape is known to have profound effects on a number of cell behaviors. In this paper we have studied its role in cell migration through modeling the effect of cell shape on the cell traction force distribution, the traction force dependent stability of cell adhesion and the matrix rigidity dependent traction force formation. To quantify the driving force of cell migration, a new parameter called the motility factor, that takes account of the effect of cell shape, matrix rigidity and dynamic stability of cell adhesion, is proposed. We showed that the motility factor depends on the matrix rigidity in a biphasic manner, which is consistent with the experimental observations of the biphasic dependence of cell migration speed on the matrix rigidity. We showed that the cell shape plays a pivotal role in the cell migration behavior by regulating the traction force at the cell front and rear. The larger the cell polarity, the larger the motility factor is. The keratocyte-like shape has a larger motility factor than the fibroblast-like shape, which explains why keratocyte has a much higher migration speed. The motility factor might be an appropriate parameter for a quantitative description of the driving force of cell migration.
细胞形状已知对许多细胞行为具有深远的影响。在本文中,我们通过模拟细胞形状对细胞牵引力分布、细胞黏附的牵引力依赖性稳定性以及基质刚性依赖性牵引力形成的影响,研究了其在细胞迁移中的作用。为了量化细胞迁移的驱动力,我们提出了一个新的参数,称为运动因子,它考虑了细胞形状、基质刚性和细胞黏附的动态稳定性的影响。我们表明,运动因子与基质刚性呈双相依赖性,这与细胞迁移速度对基质刚性的双相依赖性的实验观察一致。我们表明,细胞形状通过调节细胞前后的牵引力在细胞迁移行为中起着关键作用。细胞极性越大,运动因子越大。类角蛋白细胞形状比类成纤维细胞形状具有更大的运动因子,这解释了为什么类角蛋白细胞具有更高的迁移速度。运动因子可能是定量描述细胞迁移驱动力的合适参数。