Spatarelu Catalina-Paula, Zhang Hao, Trung Nguyen Dung, Han Xinyue, Liu Ruchuan, Guo Qiaohang, Notbohm Jacob, Fan Jing, Liu Liyu, Chen Zi
Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, United States.
Department of Engineering and Computer Science, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington 98119, United States.
ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2019;5(8):3766-3787. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b01428. Epub 2019 May 22.
Cell migration is essential for regulating many biological processes in physiological or pathological conditions, including embryonic development and cancer invasion. In vitro and in silico studies suggest that collective cell migration is associated with some biomechanical particularities such as restructuring of extracellular matrix (ECM), stress and force distribution profiles, and reorganization of the cytoskeleton. Therefore, the phenomenon could be understood by an in-depth study of cells' behavior determinants, including but not limited to mechanical cues from the environment and from fellow "travelers". This review article aims to cover the recent development of experimental and computational methods for studying the biomechanics of collective cell migration during cancer progression and invasion. We also summarized the tested hypotheses regarding the mechanism underlying collective cell migration enabled by these methods. Together, the paper enables a broad overview on the methods and tools currently available to unravel the biophysical mechanisms pertinent to cell collective migration as well as providing perspectives on future development toward eventually deciphering the key mechanisms behind the most lethal feature of cancer.
细胞迁移对于调节生理或病理条件下的许多生物学过程至关重要,包括胚胎发育和癌症侵袭。体外和计算机模拟研究表明,集体细胞迁移与一些生物力学特性相关,如细胞外基质(ECM)的重塑、应力和力分布概况以及细胞骨架的重组。因此,通过深入研究细胞行为的决定因素可以理解这一现象,这些因素包括但不限于来自环境和同伴“旅行者”的机械信号。这篇综述文章旨在涵盖研究癌症进展和侵袭过程中集体细胞迁移生物力学的实验和计算方法的最新进展。我们还总结了关于这些方法促成集体细胞迁移机制的经过验证的假设。总之,本文能够全面概述目前可用于揭示与细胞集体迁移相关的生物物理机制的方法和工具,并为最终破解癌症最致命特征背后的关键机制的未来发展提供展望。