Collective Cell Migration

Abstract

For all animals, cell migration is an essential and highly regulated process. Cells migrate to shape tissues, to vascularize tissues, in wound healing, and as part of the immune response. Unfortunately, tumor cells can also become migratory and invade surrounding tissues. Some cells migrate as individuals, but many cell types will, under physiological conditions, migrate collectively in tightly or loosely associated groups. This includes invasive tumor cells. This review discusses different types of collective cell migration, including sheet movement, sprouting and branching, streams, and free groups, and highlights recent findings that provide insight into cells' organization and behavior. Cells performing collective migration share many cell biological characteristics with independently migrating cells but, by affecting one another mechanically and via signaling, these cell groups are subject to additional regulation and constraints. New properties that emerge from this connectivity can contribute to shaping, guiding, and ultimately ensuring tissue function.

Discontinuous fluidization transition in time-correlated assemblies of actively deforming particles

“…In contrast to externally driven systems (such as sheared materials), active matter is driven out of equilibrium at the scale of its microscopic constituents. Well-studied examples include biological tissues [3], bacterial suspensions [4] and active granular and colloidal particles [5][6][7][8].Epithelial tissues constitute a biologically relevant active system composed of densely packed eukaryotic cells [3,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. Such tissues display a surprisingly fast and collective dynamics, which would not take place under equilibrium conditions [10].…”

“…Such tissues display a surprisingly fast and collective dynamics, which would not take place under equilibrium conditions [10]. This dynamics has been ascribed to at least three distinct active processes [13]: (i) self-propulsion through cell motility such as crawling [15], (ii) self-deformation through protrusion and contraction [16][17][18], and (iii) cell division and apoptosis [14]. The vertex model for tissues [12,19,20] includes the first two of these active processes and predicts a continuous static transition from an arrested to a flowing state [21].…”

“…Epithelial tissues constitute a biologically relevant active system composed of densely packed eukaryotic cells [3,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. Such tissues display a surprisingly fast and collective dynamics, which would not take place under equilibrium conditions [10].…”

Rab13-dependent Trafficking of RhoA Is Required for Directional Migration and Angiogenesis

“…The development of such networks requires recursive remodeling of the junctions between the mural cells, concurrently with their collective directional migration in response to chemotactic factors (1). A highly dynamic behavior of mural cells has been observed in several in vivo and in vitro model systems.…”

Direct detection of guidance receptor activity during border cell migration

“…Apart from using different guidance receptors, such as GPCRs and RTKs, cells also differ in whether, under physiological conditions, they migrate individually (5) or collectively, as part of a group (6). When migrating individually, each cell is expected to detect and respond to spatial cues directly and independently.…”