Berlin 2012 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 17: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 17.20: Poster

Mittwoch, 28. März 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Influence of Extracellular Matrix Topography on Cell Motility — •Mari Gorelashvili and Doris Heinrich — Physics of Cell Dynamics Group, Physics Department and Center for Nanoscience CeNS, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539, Munich, Germany

Cell migration is governed by intracellular signaling in response to external stimuli. Recent advances have been made in investigating cell motility on flat 2D surfaces, but our understanding of basic cellular motility in 3D extracellular matrix (ECM) is less progressed.

Here, we investigate the influence of micro-scale surface topography on the amoeboid motility of D. discoideum. We aim at predicting and controlling cellular migration in well-defined pillar arrays by disturbing and eliminating key proteins in the cells. By using our home-made local mean-squared displacement algorithm we extract a time-resolved motility characterization.

Our results reveal that D. discoideum spontaneous migration consists of alternating phases of directed (dir) runs and random (rm) migration modes. Contrary to expectations, dir-runs are of lower frequency and of higher velocities in pillar array. Further, pillar network geometry is reflected in the migration angle distribution of wild type cells but not of cells lacking microtubules [1].

[1] D. Arcizet S. Capito, M. Gorelashvili, C. Leonhardt, M. Vollmer, S. Youssef, S. Rappl and D. Heinrich, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1sm05615h