Ratchetaxis in Channels: Entry Point and Local Asymmetry Set Cell Directions in Confinement

Moving through a changing world: Single cell migration in 2D vs. 3D

“…Integrin/ECM: stiffness (Zaman et al, 2006) 3D Durotaxis (Raab et al, 2012) Integrin/ECM: steric hinderance (Zaman et al, 2006) 3D Topotaxis (Soans et al, 2022) ECM: non-isotropic fibers (Fraley et al, 2015) 3D Ratchetaxis (Le Maout et al, 2020) Actin: temperature dependence (Maiuri et al, 2015) 3D Thermotaxis (Khachaturyan et al, 2022) ECM: plastic vs. elastic deformation (Wisdom et al, 2018) 3D Polarization (Baker and Chen, 2012) ECM: pulling at same fiber (Holle et al, 2018) 3D Assembloids (Biggs et al, 2018) Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology frontiersin.org types (i.e., changing mechanical properties, signaling activity), an ex vivo approach with precise control of all parameters provides the best strategy to determine how individual constituents affect motion pattern. Yet even an ideal homogenous substrate will show varying pore sizes, obstacles, fiber lengths and stiffnesses, which argues that cell migration in 3D will by default display a larger variance in the motion pattern compared to a 2D system.…”

Rectification of confined soft vesicles containing active particles

“…It is quite remarkable that this model, which could be considered as what is possibly the simplest active model of a cell, can generate a sufficient level of complexity to produce behavior, such as ratchetaxis of a living cell when placed in asymmetric confining channels. 24…”

“…Yet this is an important problem especially given the experimental demonstration of directional motion of fibroblasts and epithelial cancerous cells when confined within asymmetric periodic channels. 24 While cells are complicated entities involving sub-structures such as the cytoskeleton, here, we show that rectification can be achieved by far simpler deformable entities such as a two dimensional soft vesicle that encloses spherical active particles.…”

Alterations of Cytoskeleton Networks in Cell Fate Determination and Cancer Development

“…As compared to actin filaments and microtubules, which are highly conserved throughout cell types, cytokeratin expression shows more diverse profiles with tissue- and cell-type specificity. More importantly, cytokeratin structures can be organized via actin filaments and microtubules, providing more mechanical support to maintain cytoskeletal geometry [ 77 ]. Previous studies have shown that the cytokeratin filament assembly process in cancer cells is distinct from its normal counterpart, and more consistent with the expression program in epithelial stem cells, and this has been suggested as another tumor staging method for cancer prognosis.…”