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A novel method to study contact inhibition of locomotion using micropatterned substrates

Scarpa, E; Roycroft, A; Theveneau, E; Terriac, E; Piel, M; Mayor, R; (2013) A novel method to study contact inhibition of locomotion using micropatterned substrates. Biology Open , 2 901 - 906. 10.1242/bio.20135504. Green open access

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Abstract

The concept of contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL) describes the ability of a cell to change the direction of its movement after contact with another cell. It has been shown to be responsible for physiological and developmental processes such as wound healing, macrophage dispersion and neural crest cell migration; whereas its loss facilitates cancer cell invasion and metastatic dissemination. Different assays have been developed to analyze CIL in tissue culture models. However, these methods have several caveats. Collisions happen at low frequency between freely migrating cells and the orientation of the cells at the time of contact is not predictable. Moreover, the computational analysis required by these assays is often complicated and it retains a certain degree of discretion. Here, we show that confinement of neural crest cell migration on a single dimension by using a micropatterned substrate allows standardized and predictable cell-cell collision. CIL can thus easily be quantified by direct measurement of simple cellular parameters such as the distance between nuclei after collision. We tested some of the signaling pathways previously identified as involved in CIL, such as small GTPases and non-canonical Wnt signaling, using this new method for CIL analysis. The restricted directionality of migration of cells in lines is a powerful strategy to obtain higher predictability and higher efficiency of the CIL response upon cell-cell collisions.

Type: Article
Title: A novel method to study contact inhibition of locomotion using micropatterned substrates
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1242/bio.20135504
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.20135504
Language: English
Additional information: © 2013. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. PMCID: PMC3773336
Keywords: Contact inhibition of locomotion, Micropatterned fibronectin substrates, Neural crest
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1413463
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