Electric field-induced migration and intercellular stress alignment in a collective epithelial monolayer.

ABSTRACT: During wound healing, cells migrate with electrotactic bias as a collective entity. Unlike the case of the electric field (EF)-induced single-cell migration, the sensitivity of electrotactic response of the monolayer depends primarily on the integrity of the cell-cell junctions. Although there exist biochemical clues on how cells sense the EF, a well-defined physical portrait to illustrate how collective cells respond to directional EF remains elusive. Here, we developed an EF stimulating system integrated with a hydrogel-based traction measurement platform to quantify the EF-induced changes in cellular tractions, from which the complete in-plane intercellular stress tensor can be calculated. We chose immortalized human keratinocytes, HaCaT, as our model cells to investigate the role of EF

SUBMITTER: Cho Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6249807 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature