Contact guidance and collective migration in the advancing epithelial monolayer

Gyudo Lee, Lior Atia, Bo Lan, Yasha Sharma, Lior Nissim, Ming Ru Wu, Erez Pery, Timothy K. Lu, Chan Young Park, James P. Butler, Jeffrey J. Fredberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

At the edge of a confluent cell layer, cell-free empty space is a cue that can drive directed collective cellular migration. Similarly, contact guidance is also a robust mechanical cue that can drive cell migration. However, it is unclear which of the two effects is stronger, and how each mechanism affects collective migration. To address this question, here we explore the trajectories of cells migrating collectively on a substrate containing micropatterned grooves (10–20 μm in periodicity, 2 μm in height) compared with unpatterned control substrates. Compared with unpatterned controls, the micropatterned substrates attenuated path variance by close to 70% and augmented migration coordination by more than 30%. Together, these results show that contact guidance can play an appreciable role in collective cellular migration. Also, our result can provide insights into tissue repair and regeneration with the remodeling of the connective tissue matrix.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)309-315
Number of pages7
JournalConnective Tissue Research
Volume59
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 4 Jul 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • collective cell migration
  • contact guidance
  • epithelial monolayer
  • monolayer biology
  • wound healing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Rheumatology
  • Biochemistry
  • Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

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