TY - JOUR
T1 - The Biophysics of Cell Migration: Biasing Cell Motion with Feynman Ratchets
AU - Caballero, David
AU - Kundu, Subhas C.
AU - Reis, Rui L.
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: DC acknowledges the financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the program CEEC Individual 2017 (CEECIND/00352/2017). DC and SCK also acknowledge support from the FCT (project 2MATCH02/SAICT/2017, no. 028070), funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte supported by FEDER. Finally, all authors acknowledge financial support from the EU H2020 (FoReCaST, 668983). D. Riveline (IGBMC, Universite de Stras- ´ bourg) and R. Voituriez (CNRS, UPMC) are acknowledged as former collaborators related to the main work described. We thank Dr. Mrinal Hotta from KAUST University for critical reading of this manuscript.
PY - 2020/7/9
Y1 - 2020/7/9
N2 - ABSTRACT
The concepts and frameworks of soft matter physics and the laws of thermodynamics can be used to describe relevant developmental, physiologic, and pathologic events in which directed cell migration is involved, such as in cancer. Typically, this directionality has been associated with the presence of soluble long-range gradients of a chemoattractant, synergizing with many other guidance cues to direct the motion of cells. In particular, physical inputs have been shown to strongly influence cell locomotion. However, this type of cue has been less explored despite the importance in biology. In this paper, we describe recent in vitro works at the interface between physics and biology, showing how the motion of cells can be directed by using gradient-free environments with repeated local asymmetries. This rectification of cell migration, from random to directed, is a process reminiscent of the Feynman ratchet; therefore, this framework can be used to explain the mechanism behind directed cell motion.
AB - ABSTRACT
The concepts and frameworks of soft matter physics and the laws of thermodynamics can be used to describe relevant developmental, physiologic, and pathologic events in which directed cell migration is involved, such as in cancer. Typically, this directionality has been associated with the presence of soluble long-range gradients of a chemoattractant, synergizing with many other guidance cues to direct the motion of cells. In particular, physical inputs have been shown to strongly influence cell locomotion. However, this type of cue has been less explored despite the importance in biology. In this paper, we describe recent in vitro works at the interface between physics and biology, showing how the motion of cells can be directed by using gradient-free environments with repeated local asymmetries. This rectification of cell migration, from random to directed, is a process reminiscent of the Feynman ratchet; therefore, this framework can be used to explain the mechanism behind directed cell motion.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/665234
UR - http://meridian.allenpress.com/the-biophysicist/article/doi/10.35459/tbp.2020.000150/439617/The-Biophysics-of-Cell-Migration-Biasing-Cell
U2 - 10.35459/tbp.2020.000150
DO - 10.35459/tbp.2020.000150
M3 - Article
SN - 2578-6970
VL - 1
JO - The Biophysicist
JF - The Biophysicist
IS - 2
ER -
