Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 49: Posters - Cell Mechanics and Migration & Physics of Cancer

BP 49.11: Poster

Mittwoch, 9. März 2016, 17:00–19:00, Poster C

Cell adhesion and cell sorting across the EMT — •Steve Pawlizak¹, Anatol Fritsch¹, Steffen Grosser¹, Linda Oswald¹, Dave Ahrens¹, Tobias Thalheim¹, M. Lisa Manning², and Josef A. Käs¹ — ¹University of Leipzig, Institute of Experimental Physics I, 04103 Leipzig, Germany — ²Syracuse University, Department of Physics, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA

The spatial segregation of different cell populations in distinct compartments and the formation of well-defined lineage boundaries in-between is a fundamental process during the embryonic development. While normal cells will, in general, never cross these boundaries, metastatic cancer cells undergoing an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) may eventually acquire the ability to do so. To evaluate the role of cell cohesion in cell sorting and compartmentalization across the EMT, we analyze the mechanical properties of three cell lines exhibiting a shift in cadherin levels characteristic of an EMT. We apply a diverse set of methods to measure cell-cell adhesiveness, cell stiffness, and cell shapes, and compare the results to predictions from cell sorting in mixtures of the cell types. Although the final sorted state is extremely robust among all three cell lines, suggesting that cell sorting may play an important role in organization and boundary formation in tumors, we surprisingly find that the differential adhesion hypothesis (DAH) does not correctly predict the final sorted state. This indicates that these tissues do not behave like immiscible fluids, and that dynamical effects such as directional motility, friction, and jamming may play a much more important role than previously expected.