Spontaneous migration of cancer cells under conditions of mechanical confinement.

ABSTRACT: When cancer cells spread away from the primary tumor, they often follow the trajectories of lymphatic vessels, nerves, white matter tracts, or other heterogeneous structures in tissues. To better understand this form of guided cell migration we designed a series of microfluidic devices that mechanically constrain migrating cancer cells inside microchannels with cross-section comparable to cell size. We observed unexpectedly fast and persistent movement in one direction for several hours of cancer cells of different types. The persistent motility occurs spontaneously, in the absence of external gradients, suggesting the presence of intrinsic mechanisms driving cancer cell motility that are induced in conditions of mechanical confinement. To probe the mechanisms responsible for this behavior

SUBMITTER: Irimia D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3763902 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature