Faculty Opinions recommendation of α-Catenin Controls the Anisotropy of Force Distribution at Cell-Cell Junctions during Collective Cell Migration.

Author(s):  
Johan De Rooij

Cell Reports ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 3447-3456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenji Matsuzawa ◽  
Takuya Himoto ◽  
Yuki Mochizuki ◽  
Junichi Ikenouchi


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (25) ◽  
pp. 3024-3036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Balcerak ◽  
Alicja Trebinska-Stryjewska ◽  
Maciej Wakula ◽  
Mateusz Chmielarczyk ◽  
Urszula Smietanka ◽  
...  

HAX1 protein is involved in the regulation of apoptosis, cell motility and calcium homeostasis. Its overexpression was reported in several tumors, including breast cancer. This study demonstrates that HAX1 has an impact on collective, but not single-cell migration, thus indicating the importance of cell–cell contacts for the HAX1-mediated effect. Accordingly, it was shown that HAX1 knockdown affects cell–cell junctions, substrate adhesion, and epithelial cell layer integrity. As demonstrated here, these effects can be attributed to the modulation of actomyosin contractility through changes in RhoA and septin signaling. Additionally, it was shown that HAX1 does not influence invasive potential in the breast cancer cell line, suggesting that its role in breast cancer progression may be linked instead to collective invasion of the epithelial cells but not single-cell dissemination.



2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azita Gorji ◽  
Pearlyn Jia Ying Toh ◽  
Yi-Chin Toh ◽  
Yusuke Toyama ◽  
Pakorn Kanchanawong

RationaleFailure of small synthetic vascular grafts is largely due to late endothelialization and has been an ongoing challenge in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.ObjectivePrevious strategies developed to promote graft endothelialization include surface topographical modulation and biochemical modifications. However, these have been met with limited success. Importantly, although the integrity of Endothelial Cell (EC) monolayer is crucial for endothelialization, the crosstalk between surface topography and cell-cell connectivity is still not well understood. Here we explored a combined strategy that utilizes both topographical features and pharmacological perturbations.Methods and resultWe characterized EC behaviors in response to micron-scale grating topography in conjunction with pharmacological perturbations of endothelial adherens junctions (EAJ) regulators. We studied the EA.hy 926 cell-cell junctions and monolayer integrity using the junctional markers upon the inhibitory effect of EAJ regulator on both planar and grating topographies substrates.We identified a protein tyrosine phosphatase, PTP1B, as a potent regulator of EAJ stability. Next, we studied the physiologically relevant behaviors of EC using primary human coronary arterial endothelial cells (HCAEC). Our results showed that PTP1B inhibition synergized with grating topographies to modulate EAJ rearrangement, thereby controlling global EC monolayer sheet orientation, connectivity and collective cell migration to promote endothelialization.Our results showed that PTP1B inhibition synergized with grating topographies to modulate EAJ rearrangement, thereby controlling global EC monolayer sheet orientation, connectivity and collective cell migration and proliferation.ConclusionThe synergistic effect of PTP1B inhibition and grating topographies could be useful for the promotion of endothelialization by enhancing EC migration and proliferation.



2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujun Chen ◽  
Nirupama Kotian ◽  
George Aranjuez ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
C. Luke Messer ◽  
...  

AbstractCollective cell migration is central to many developmental and pathological processes. However, the mechanisms that keep cell collectives together and coordinate movement of multiple cells are poorly understood. Using the Drosophila border cell migration model, we find that Protein phosphatase 1 (Pp1) activity controls collective cell cohesion and migration. Inhibition of Pp1 causes border cells to round up, dissociate, and move as single cells with altered motility. We present evidence that Pp1 promotes proper levels of cadherin-catenin complex proteins at cell-cell junctions within the cluster to keep border cells together. Pp1 further restricts actomyosin contractility to the cluster periphery rather than at internal cell-cell contacts. We show that the myosin phosphatase Pp1 complex, which inhibits non-muscle myosin-II (Myo-II) activity, coordinates border cell shape and cluster cohesion. Given the high conservation of Pp1 complexes, this study identifies Pp1 as a major regulator of collective versus single cell migration.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraham E. Wolf ◽  
Matthew A. Heinrich ◽  
Isaac B. Breinyn ◽  
Tom J. Zajdel ◽  
Daniel J. Cohen

The ability to program collective cell migration can allow us to control critical multicellular processes in development, regenerative medicine, and invasive disease. However, while various technologies exist to make individual cells migrate, translating these tools to control myriad, collectively interacting cells within a single tissue poses many challenges. For instance, do cells within the same tissue interpret a global migration 'command' differently based on where they are in the tissue? Similarly, since no stimulus is permanent, what are the long-term effects of transient commands on collective cell dynamics? We investigate these questions by bioelectrically programming large epithelial tissues to globally migrate 'rightward' via electrotaxis. Tissues clearly developed distinct rear, middle, side, and front responses to a single global migration stimulus. Furthermore, at no point post-stimulation did tissues return to their pre-stimulation behavior, instead equilibrating to a third, new migratory state. These unique dynamics suggested that programmed migration resets tissue mechanical state, which was confirmed by transient chemical disruption of cell-cell junctions, analysis of strain wave propagation patterns, and quantification of cellular crowd dynamics. Overall, this work demonstrates how externally driving the collective migration of a tissue can reprogram baseline cell-cell interactions and collective dynamics, even well beyond the end of the global migratory cue, and emphasizes the importance of considering the supracellular context of tissues and other collectives when attempting to program crowd behaviors.



2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (29) ◽  
pp. e2101352118
Author(s):  
Gawoon Shim ◽  
Danelle Devenport ◽  
Daniel J. Cohen

As collective cell migration is essential in biological processes spanning development, healing, and cancer progression, methods to externally program cell migration are of great value. However, problems can arise if the external commands compete with strong, preexisting collective behaviors in the tissue or system. We investigate this problem by applying a potent external migratory cue—electrical stimulation and electrotaxis—to primary mouse skin monolayers where we can tune cell–cell adhesion strength to modulate endogenous collectivity. Monolayers with high cell–cell adhesion showed strong natural coordination and resisted electrotactic control, with this conflict actively damaging the leading edge of the tissue. However, reducing preexisting coordination in the tissue by specifically inhibiting E-cadherin–dependent cell–cell adhesion, either by disrupting the formation of cell–cell junctions with E-cadherin–specific antibodies or rapidly dismantling E-cadherin junctions with calcium chelators, significantly improved controllability. Finally, we applied this paradigm of weakening existing coordination to improve control and demonstrate accelerated wound closure in vitro. These results are in keeping with those from diverse, noncellular systems and confirm that endogenous collectivity should be considered as a key quantitative design variable when optimizing external control of collective migration.



Author(s):  
Naoya Hino ◽  
Leone Rossetti ◽  
Ariadna Marín-Llauradó ◽  
Kazuhiro Aoki ◽  
Xavier Trepat ◽  
...  

AbstractDuring collective migration of epithelial cells, the migration direction is aligned over a large, tissue-scale expanse. Although the collective cell migration is known to be directed by mechanical forces transmitted via cell-cell junctions, it remains elusive how the intercellular force transmission is coordinated with intracellular biochemical signaling to achieve collective movements. Here we show that intercellular coupling of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-mediated mechanochemical feedback in individual cells yields long-distance transmission of guidance cues. Mechanical stretch activates ERK through epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation, and the ERK activation triggers cell contraction. In addition, the contraction of the activated cell pulls neighboring cells via cell-cell junctions, evoking another round of ERK activation and contraction in the neighbors. Furthermore, anisotropic contraction based on front-rear cell polarization guarantees unidirectional propagation of ERK activation waves, and in turn, the ERK activation waves direct multicellular alignment of the polarity, leading to long-range ordered migration. Our findings reveal that mechanical forces mediate intercellular signaling underlying sustained transmission of guidance cues for collective cell migration.



Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Pau Urdeitx ◽  
Mohamed H. Doweidar

Mechanical and electrical stimuli play a key role in tissue formation, guiding cell processes such as cell migration, differentiation, maturation, and apoptosis. Monitoring and controlling these stimuli on in vitro experiments is not straightforward due to the coupling of these different stimuli. In addition, active and reciprocal cell–cell and cell–extracellular matrix interactions are essential to be considered during formation of complex tissue such as myocardial tissue. In this sense, computational models can offer new perspectives and key information on the cell microenvironment. Thus, we present a new computational 3D model, based on the Finite Element Method, where a complex extracellular matrix with piezoelectric properties interacts with cardiac muscle cells during the first steps of tissue formation. This model includes collective behavior and cell processes such as cell migration, maturation, differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. The model has employed to study the initial stages of in vitro cardiac aggregate formation, considering cell–cell junctions, under different extracellular matrix configurations. Three different cases have been purposed to evaluate cell behavior in fibered, mechanically stimulated fibered, and mechanically stimulated piezoelectric fibered extra-cellular matrix. In this last case, the cells are guided by the coupling of mechanical and electrical stimuli. Accordingly, the obtained results show the formation of more elongated groups and enhancement in cell proliferation.



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