Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 2: Physics of Cancer

BP 2.5: Talk

Monday, March 7, 2016, 10:45–11:00, H43

Cell sorting in breast cancer cell lines: Driven by differential adhesion? — Steve Pawlizak¹, Anatol Fritsch¹, •Steffen Grosser¹, Linda Oswald¹, Dave Ahrens¹, Tobias Thalheim¹, M. Lisa Manning², and Josef Alfons Käs¹ — ¹University of Leipzig, Institute of Experimental Physics I, 04103 Leipzig, Germany — ²Syracuse University, Department of Physics, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA

Demixing of differentiating cells into different compartments, resulting in tissues with stable boundaries, is a crucial process during embryogenesis, which is usually thought of being driven by differential adhesion of the cells. This stable sorting of cells is disrupted in metastasis, questioning if differential adhesion plays the decisive role here, too.

We use a panel of three different breast cancer cell lines from different sides of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition to test the differential adhesion hypothesis (DAH) in this environment. We employ a variety of measurement techniques to asses mechanical properties of cells on the single-cell level, comprising cell-cell adhesion, cell stiffness, cell shapes, and cadherin densities. We compare these results to multicellular 3D sorting experiments and show that the results are at odds with predictions from the DAH. The behaviour of multi-cellular aggregates even shows deviations from the basic assumption of tissue liquidity on long timescales.

These findings suggest that dynamical effects such as directional motility or jamming might be key players in cancer development.