Neutrophil microtubules suppress polarity and enhance directional migration.

ABSTRACT: How do microtubules, which maintain and direct polarity of many eukaryotic cells, regulate polarity of blood neutrophils? In sharp contrast to most cells, disrupting a neutrophil's microtubule network with nocodazole causes it to polarize and migrate [Niggli, V. (2003) J. Cell Sci. 116, 813-822]. Nocodazole induces the same responses in differentiated HL-60 cells, a model neutrophil cell line, and reduces their chemotactic prowess by causing them to pursue abnormally circuitous paths in migrating toward a stationary point source of an attractant, f-Met-Leu-Phe (fMLP). The chemotactic defect stems from dramatic nocodazole-induced imbalance between the divergent, opposed fMLP-induced "backness" and "frontness" signals responsible for neutrophil polarity. Nocodazole (i) stimulates backness by

SUBMITTER: Xu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1087512 | biostudies-literature | 2005 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature