Kaler Logan I, Robitaille Michael C, Christodoulides Joseph A, Calhoun Patrick J, Byers Jeff M, Raphael Marc P
Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave SW, Washington, District of Columbia 20375-5320, United States.
Nanocrine, Inc., Frederick, Maryland 21704, United States.
Langmuir. 2025 Jun 10;41(22):13763-13773. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c05135. Epub 2025 May 30.
From cancer research to immunology, single-cell migration assays are among the most common assays for gaining phenotypic insight into the dynamics of adhesion and migration. In general, however, the extracellular environments used in these assays are poorly characterized, which can lead to difficulty interpreting the resulting cellular behavior. Here we introduce a single-cell migration assay which incorporates tunable surfaces that are chemically well-characterized by surface ligand activity (surface activity) quantification. We applied this approach to MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cells, measuring single cell morphology, speed, and directionality as a function of cRGD surface activity, controlled via cRGD ligand spacing. Using this approach, we show cell behavior via morphology, migration, and presence of focal adhesions can be directed from amoeboid to mesenchymal-like phenotypes, highlighting tunable surface activity as a reproducible way to direct phenotype.
从癌症研究到免疫学，单细胞迁移分析是深入了解细胞黏附和迁移动态表型的最常用分析方法之一。然而，一般来说，这些分析中使用的细胞外环境特征描述不足，这可能导致难以解释由此产生的细胞行为。在此，我们介绍一种单细胞迁移分析方法，该方法采用了可调节表面，这些表面通过表面配体活性（表面活性）定量在化学上得到了很好的表征。我们将这种方法应用于MDA-MB-231乳腺癌细胞，测量单细胞形态、速度和方向性作为cRGD表面活性的函数，通过cRGD配体间距进行控制。使用这种方法，我们表明，通过形态、迁移和粘着斑的存在所显示的细胞行为可以从阿米巴样表型导向间充质样表型，突出了可调节表面活性作为指导表型的一种可重复方式。
