Department of Biochemistry, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
CEA, LETI, DTBS, LISA, Université Grenoble Alpes, F-38000 Grenoble, France.
J Cell Sci. 2019 Jan 24;132(4):jcs222372. doi: 10.1242/jcs.222372.
Epithelial tissues function as barriers that separate the organism from the environment. They usually have highly curved shapes, such as tubules or cysts. However, the processes by which the geometry of the environment and the cell's mechanical properties set the epithelium shape are not yet known. In this study, we encapsulated two epithelial cell lines, MDCK and J3B1A, into hollow alginate tubes and grew them under cylindrical confinement forming a complete monolayer. MDCK monolayers detached from the alginate shell at a constant rate, whereas J3B1A monolayers detached at a low rate unless the tube radius was reduced. We showed that this detachment is driven by contractile stresses in the epithelium and can be enhanced by local curvature. This allows us to conclude that J3B1A cells exhibit smaller contractility than MDCK cells. Monolayers inside curved tubes detach at a higher rate on the outside of a curve, confirming that detachment is driven by contraction.
上皮组织作为将生物体与环境隔开的屏障发挥作用。它们通常具有高度弯曲的形状，例如管状或囊状。然而，环境的几何形状和细胞的机械特性如何决定上皮形状的过程尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们将两种上皮细胞系 MDCK 和 J3B1A 包裹在中空的海藻酸盐管中，并在圆柱状限制下生长，形成完整的单层。MDCK 单层以恒定的速率从海藻酸盐壳上脱落，而 J3B1A 单层则以较低的速率脱落，除非管半径减小。我们表明，这种脱落是由上皮中的收缩力驱动的，并且可以通过局部曲率增强。这使我们可以得出结论，即 J3B1A 细胞的收缩性比 MDCK 细胞小。在弯曲的管内的单层在曲线的外侧以更高的速率脱落，这证实了脱落是由收缩驱动的。
