Cells activated for wound repair have the potential to direct collective invasion of an epithelium.

ABSTRACT: Mechanisms regulating how groups of cells are signaled to move collectively from their original site and invade surrounding matrix are poorly understood. Here we develop a clinically relevant ex vivo injury invasion model to determine whether cells involved in directing wound healing have invasive function and whether they can act as leader cells to direct movement of a wounded epithelium through a three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrix (ECM) environment. Similar to cancer invasion, we found that the injured cells invade into the ECM as cords, involving heterotypical cell-cell interactions. Mesenchymal cells with properties of activated repair cells that typically locate to a wound edge are present in leader positions at the front of ZO-1-rich invading cords of cells, where they exten

SUBMITTER: Bleaken BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4751597 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature