Emergence of Coordinated Collective Cell Migration under Physical Confinement

Abstract

Several of the previous studies have focused on the large-scale behavior of collectively migrating epithelia, but the role of single cells in these migrating tissues to initiate such coordinated collective migration was not investigated in detail. Also, little attention was paid to the factors which could contribute towards the maintenance of such a robust and persistent migration process. In this study, we implemented a minimalistic strategy using 1-Dimensional physical confinement set up to investigate the role of single cells in the emergence and the maintenance of these large-scale coordinated movements. Our data shows the implication of establishing front-rear polarity and traction forces at the single cell level during initiation, and a sustained memory of these single cell level polarities towards the maintenance of collective cell migration. As a future extension to this work, we also proposed an experimental setup to probe the role of mechanical forces between migrating tissues interface.