Li Bo, Sun Sean X
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Johns Hopkins Physical Sciences-Oncology Center, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Johns Hopkins Physical Sciences-Oncology Center, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
Biophys J. 2014 Oct 7;107(7):1532-41. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2014.08.006.
Cell migration plays a pivotal role in many physiologically important processes such as embryogenesis, wound-healing, immune defense, and cancer metastasis. Although much effort has been directed toward motility of individual cells, the mechanisms underpinning collective cell migration remain poorly understood. Here we develop a collective motility model that incorporates cell mechanics and persistent random motions of individual cells to study coherent migratory motions in epithelial-like monolayers. This model, in absence of any external chemical signals, is able to explain coordinate rotational motion seen in systems ranging from two adherent cells to multicellular assemblies. We show that the competition between the active persistent force and random polarization fluctuation is responsible for the robust rotation. Passive mechanical coupling between cells is necessary but active chemical signaling between cells is not. The predicted angular motions also depend on the geometrical shape of the underlying substrate: cells exhibit collective rotation on circular substrates, but display linear back-and-forth motion on long and narrow substrates.
细胞迁移在许多生理重要过程中起着关键作用，如胚胎发育、伤口愈合、免疫防御和癌症转移。尽管人们在单个细胞的运动性方面付出了很多努力，但集体细胞迁移的潜在机制仍知之甚少。在这里，我们开发了一个集体运动模型，该模型结合了细胞力学和单个细胞的持续随机运动，以研究上皮样单层中的相干迁移运动。该模型在没有任何外部化学信号的情况下，能够解释从两个贴壁细胞到多细胞聚集体等系统中观察到的协调旋转运动。我们表明，主动持续力与随机极化波动之间的竞争是稳健旋转的原因。细胞之间的被动机械耦合是必要的，但细胞之间的主动化学信号传导不是。预测的角运动还取决于底层基质的几何形状：细胞在圆形基质上表现出集体旋转，但在狭长基质上表现出线性来回运动。
