New method to understand how cells crawl! Proteins called integrin receptors act like little hands and feet to pull these cells across a surface or to anchor them in place. When groups of these cells are put into a petri dish with a variety of substrates they can sense the differences in the surfaces and they will “crawl” toward the stiffest one they can find. Published in Nature Communications, now chemists have devised a method using DNA-based tension probes to zoom in at the molecular level and measure and map these phenomena: How cells mechanically sense their environments, migrate and adhere to things. Using their new method, the researchers showed how the forces applied by fibroblast cells is actually distributed at the individual molecule level. “We found that each of the integrin receptors on the perimeter of cells is basically ‘feeling’ the mechanics of its environment,” Salaita (author) says. “If the surface they feel is softer, they will unbind from it and if it’s more rigid, they will bind. They like to plant their stakes in firm ground.”
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 15:05:52 +0000
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