Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Singapore

Mechanobiology of Disease

Poster Abstracts

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.

109