Abstract
During the last few years, significant attention has been given to the plasticity of cell migration, i.e., the ability of individual cell to switch between different motility modes, in particular between mesenchymal and amoeboid motilities. This phenomenon is called the mesenchymal-to-amoeboid transition (MAT). Such a plasticity of cell migration is a mechanism, by which cancer cells can adapt their migration mode to different microenvironments and thus it may promote tumor dissemination. It was shown that interventions at certain regulatory points of mesenchymal motility as well as alterations of environmental conditions can trigger MAT. One of the approaches to induce MAT is to mechanically confine cells and one of the simplest ways to achieve this is to cultivate cells under agarose. This method does not require any special tool, is easily reproducible and allows cell tracking by videomicroscopy. We describe here a protocol, where MAT is associated with chemotaxis.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- ECM:
-
Extracellular matrix
- MAT:
-
Mesenchymal-to-amoeboid transition
- MMPs:
-
Matrix metalloproteinases.
References
Parsons JT, Horwitz AR, Schwartz MA (2010) Cell adhesion: integrating cytoskeletal dynamics and cellular tension. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 11:633–643
Pollard TD, Borisy GG (2003) Cellular motility driven by assembly and disassembly of actin filaments. Cell 112:453–465
Svitkina TM (2013) Ultrastructure of protrusive actin filament arrays. Curr Opin Cell Biol 25:574–581
Vicente-Manzanares M, Choi C, Horwitz AR (2009) Integrins in cell migration – the actin connection. J Cell Sci 122:199–206
Enterline HT, Cohen DR (1950) The ameboid motility of human and animal neoplastic cells. Cancer 3:1033–1038
Wolf K, Mazo I, Leung H et al (2003) Compensation mechanism in tumor cell migration: mesenchymal-amoeboid transition after blocking of pericellular proteolysis. J Cell Biol 160:267–277
Friedl P, Wolf K (2003) Tumour-cell invasion and migration: diversity and escape mechanisms. Nat Rev Cancer 3:362–374
Fackler OT, Grosse R (2008) Cell motility through plasma membrane blebbing. J Cell Biol 181:879–884
Panková K, Rösel D, Novotný M, Brábek J (2010) The molecular mechanisms of transition between mesenchymal and amoeboid invasiveness in tumor cells. Cell Mol Life Sci 67:63–71
Paluch EK, Raz E (2013) The role and regulation of blebs in cell migration. Curr Opin Cell Biol 25:582–590
Lämmermann T, Sixt M (2009) Mechanical modes of “amoeboid” cell migration. Curr Opin Cell Biol 21:636–644
Sahai E, Marshall CJ (2003) Differing modes of tumour cell invasion have distinct requirements for Rho/ROCK signalling and extracellular proteolysis. Nat Cell Biol 5:711–719
Carragher NO, Walker SM, Scott Carragher LA et al (2006) Calpain 2 and Src dependence distinguishes mesenchymal and amoeboid modes of tumour cell invasion: a link to integrin function. Oncogene 25:5726–5740
Van Goethem E, Poincloux R, Gauffre F et al (2010) Matrix architecture dictates three-dimensional migration modes of human macrophages: differential involvement of proteases and podosome-like structures. J Immunol 184:1049–1061
Ehrbar M, Sala A, Lienemann P et al (2011) Elucidating the role of matrix stiffness in 3D cell migration and remodeling. Biophys J 100:284–293
Bergert M, Chandradoss SD, Desai RA, Paluch E (2012) Cell mechanics control rapid transitions between blebs and lamellipodia during migration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109:14434–14439
Liu Y-J, Le Berre M, Lautenschlaeger F et al (2015) Confinement and low adhesion induce fast amoeboid migration of slow mesenchymal cells. Cell 160:659–672
Gao Y, Wang Z, Hao Q et al (2017) Loss of ERα induces amoeboid-like migration of breast cancer cells by downregulating vinculin. Nat Commun 8:14483
Derivery E, Fink J, Martin D et al (2008) Free Brick1 is a trimeric precursor in the assembly of a functional Wave complex. PLoS One 3:e2462
Beckham Y, Vasquez RJ, Stricker J et al (2014) Arp2/3 inhibition induces amoeboid-like protrusions in MCF10A epithelial cells by reduced cytoskeletal-membrane coupling and focal adhesion assembly. PLoS One 9:e100943
Sabeh F, Shimizu-Hirota R, Weiss SJ (2009) Protease-dependent versus -independent cancer cell invasion programs: three-dimensional amoeboid movement revisited. J Cell Biol 185:11–19
Parri M, Taddei ML, Bianchini F et al (2009) EphA2 reexpression prompts invasion of melanoma cells shifting from mesenchymal to amoeboid-like motility style. Cancer Res 69:2072–2081
Kosla J, Paňková D, Plachý J et al (2013) Metastasis of aggressive amoeboid sarcoma cells is dependent on Rho/ROCK/MLC signaling. Cell Commun Signal 11:51
Taddei ML, Giannoni E, Morandi A et al (2014) Mesenchymal to amoeboid transition is associated with stem-like features of melanoma cells. Cell Commun Signal 12:24
Koch B, Meyer AK, Helbig L et al (2015) Dimensionality of rolled-up nanomembranes controls neural stem cell migration mechanism. Nano Lett 15:5530–5538
Haeger A, Krause M, Wolf K, Friedl P (2014) Cell jamming: collective invasion of mesenchymal tumor cells imposed by tissue confinement. Biochim Biophys Acta 1840:2386–2395
Heit B, Kubes P (2003) Measuring chemotaxis and chemokinesis: the under-agarose cell migration assay. Sci STKE 2003:PL5
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant 16-15-10288).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Chikina, A.S., Alexandrova, A.Y. (2018). An In Vitro System to Study the Mesenchymal-to-Amoeboid Transition. In: Gautreau, A. (eds) Cell Migration. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1749. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7701-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7701-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7700-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7701-7
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols