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Mechanobiology of Disease
Poster Abstracts
109
30-POS
Board 30
Circular Dorsal Ruffles: A Mode of Steering Cells
Kamaladasan Kalidasan
1
, Yukai Zeng
2
, Boon Chuan Low
4,3
, K.-H. Chiam
2,3
, Cheng Gee
Koh
1,3
.
1
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore,
2
A*STAR, Singapore,
Singapore,
3
Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore, Singapore,
4
National University of Singapore,
Singapore, Singapore.
Circular Dorsal Ruffles (CDRs) are actin rich, ring-shaped structures that form across the dorsal
surface of fibroblasts upon PDGF stimulation. CDRs have been nominated to play a role in
preparing a stationary cell for movement via reorganisation of the actin cytoskeleton and
receptor internalisation. When POPX2, a serine/threonine phosphatase known to be upregulated
in highly invasive breast cancer cell lines such as MDA-MB-231, is stably expressed in
fibroblasts, perpetual CDRs are observed even without PDGF stimulation. Interestingly, it has
been shown that POPX2 expression results in loss of directional migration when compared to
control fibroblasts. Herein, we investigated the possible link between CDRs and directional
migration in stably POPX2 expressing and control fibroblasts. We adopted a strategy that
allowed us to track cells on 1D micropatterned substrates, thereby restricting their movement to
either a leftward or rightward direction. We then adopted a computational approach to analyse
the directional migration persistence in control and stably POPX2 expressing fibroblasts that
either exhibited or never exhibited CDRs. We found fibroblasts that were exhibiting CDRs,
showing increased directional migration persistence. This suggests that CDRs may have a role in
directional migration and may serve as a corrective mechanism in aberrantly migrating cells.