Regulators of Metastasis Modulate the Migratory Response to Cell Contact under Spatial Confinement.

ABSTRACT: The breast tumor microenvironment (TMEN) is a unique niche where protein fibers help to promote invasion and metastasis. Cells migrating along these fibers are constantly interacting with each other. How cells respond to these interactions has important implications. Cancer cells that circumnavigate or slide around other cells on protein fibers take a less tortuous path out of the primary tumor; conversely, cells that turn back upon encountering other cells invade less efficiently. The contact response of migrating cancer cells in a fibrillar TMEN is poorly understood. Here, using high-aspect ratio micropatterns as a model fibrillar platform, we show that metastatic cells overcome spatial constraints to slide effectively on narrow fiber-like dimensions, whereas nontransformed MCF-10A mamma

SUBMITTER: Milano DF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4850354 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature