scholarly journals Modeling cell crawling strategies with a bistable model: From amoeboid to fan-shaped cell motion

2020 ◽  
Vol 412 ◽  
pp. 132591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Moreno ◽  
Sven Flemming ◽  
Francesc Font ◽  
Matthias Holschneider ◽  
Carsten Beta ◽  
...  
Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Utku M. Sonmez ◽  
Adam Wood ◽  
Kyle Justus ◽  
Weijian Jiang ◽  
Fatima Syed-Picard ◽  
...  

Gradients of soluble molecules coordinate cellular communication in a diverse range of multicellular systems. Chemokine-driven chemotaxis is a key orchestrator of cell movement during organ development, immune response and cancer progression. Chemotaxis assays capable of examining cell responses to different chemokines in the context of various extracellular matrices will be crucial to characterize directed cell motion in conditions which mimic whole tissue conditions. Here, a microfluidic device which can generate different chemokine patterns in flow-free gradient chambers while controlling surface extracellular matrix (ECM) to study chemotaxis either at the population level or at the single cell level with high resolution imaging is presented. The device is produced by combining additive manufacturing (AM) and soft lithography. Generation of concentration gradients in the device were simulated and experimentally validated. Then, stable gradients were applied to modulate chemotaxis and chemokinetic response of Jurkat cells as a model for T lymphocyte motility. Live imaging of the gradient chambers allowed to track and quantify Jurkat cell migration patterns. Using this system, it has been found that the strength of the chemotactic response of Jurkat cells to CXCL12 gradient was reduced by increasing surface fibronectin in a dose-dependent manner. The chemotaxis of the Jurkat cells was also found to be governed not only by the CXCL12 gradient but also by the average CXCL12 concentration. Distinct migratory behaviors in response to chemokine gradients in different contexts may be physiologically relevant for shaping the host immune response and may serve to optimize the targeting and accumulation of immune cells to the inflammation site. Our approach demonstrates the feasibility of using a flow-free gradient chamber for evaluating cross-regulation of cell motility by multiple factors in different biologic processes.


Author(s):  
Muheng Zhang ◽  
Yongsheng Lian

Coulter counters are analytical microfluidic instrument used to measure the size and concentration of biological cells or colloid particles suspended in electrolyte. The underlying working mechanism of Coulter counters is the Coulter principle which relies on the fact that when low-conductive cells pass through an electric field these cells cause disturbances in the measurement (current or voltage). Useful information about these cells can be obtained by analyzing these disturbances if an accurate correlation between the measured disturbances and cell characteristics. In this paper we use computational fluid dynamics method to investigate this correlation. The flow field is described by solving the Navier-Stokes equations, the electric field is represented by a Laplace’s equation in which the conductivity is calculated from the Navier-Stokes equations, and the cell motion is calculated by solving the equations of motion. The accuracy of the code is validated by comparing with analytical solutions. The study is based on a coplanar Coulter counter with three inlets that consist of two sheath flow inlet and one conductive flow inlet. The effects of diffusivity, cell size, sheath flow rate, and cell geometry are discussed in details. The impacts of electrode size, gap between electrodes and electrode location on the measured distribution are also studied.


2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Wurzel ◽  
Carlo Schaller ◽  
Matthias Simon ◽  
Andreas Deutsch

The malignant brain tumourGlioblastoma multiforme(GBM) displays a highly invasive behaviour. Spreading of the malignant cells appears to be guided by the white matter fibre tracts within the brain. In order to understand the global growth process we introduce a lattice-gas cellular automaton model which describes the local interaction between individual malignant cells and their neighbourhood. We consider interactions between cells (brain cells and tumour cells) and between malignant cells and the fibre tracts in the brain, which are considered as a prepattern. The prepattern implies persistent individual cell motion along the fibre structure. Simulations with the model show that only the inclusion of the prepattern results in invading tumour and growing tumour islets in front of the expanding tumour bulk (i.e. the growth pattern observed in clinical practice). Our results imply that the infiltrative growth of GBMs is, in part, determined by the physical structure of the surrounding brain rather than by intrinsic properties of the tumour cells.


1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yow-Min D. Tsao ◽  
Steve R. Gonda

Abstract The Hydrodynamic Focusing Bioreactor (HDFB) developed by NASA at the Johnson Space Center provides a unique hydrofocusing capability that simultaneously enables a low-shear culture environment and a unique hydrofocusing-based “herding” of suspended cells, cell aggregates, and air bubbles. The HDFB is a rotating dome-shaped cell culture vessel with a centrally located sampling port and an internal rotating viscous spinner attached to a rotating base. The vessel and viscous spinner can rotate at different speeds and in either the same or different directions. Adjusting the differential rotation rate between the vessel and spinner results in a controllable hydrodynamic focusing force. The resultant hydrodynamic force suspends the cells in a low-shear fluid environment that supports the formation of delicate three-dimensional tissue assemblies. Both suspension and anchorage-dependent cells have been successfully cultured.


2000 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. V. Kolobov ◽  
A. A. Polezhaev ◽  
G. I. Solyanik

Metastasis is the outcome of several selective sequential steps where one of the first and necessary steps is the progressive overgrowth or dominance of a small number of metastatic cells in a tumour. In spite of numerous experimental investigations concerning the growth advantage of metastatic cells, the mechanisms resulting in their dominance are still unknown. Metastatic cell overgrowth occurs even if doubling time of the metastatic subpopulation is shorter than that of all others subpopulations in a heterogeneous tumour. In order to examine the hypothesis that under conditions of competition of cell subpopulations for common substrata cell motility of the slow-growing subpopulation can result in its dominance in a heterogeneous tumour, a mathematical model of heterogeneous tumour growth is suggested. The model describes two cell subpopulations which can grow with different rates and transform into the resting state depending on the concentration of the substrate consumed by both subpopulations. The slow-growing subpopulation is assumed to be motile. In numerical simulations it is shown that this subpopulation is able to overgrow the other one. The dominance phenomenon (resulting from random cell motion) depends on the motility coefficient in a threshold manner: in a heterogeneous tumour the slow-dividing motile subpopulation is able to overgrow its non-motile counterparts if its motility coefficient exceeds a certain threshold value. Computations demonstrate independence of the motile cells overgrowth from the initial tumour composition.


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