Cell stiffness and extravasation

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14358
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Laboratory animal science
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Saito Daisuke 東北大学, 学際科学フロンティア研究所, 助教 (90403360)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞移動 / 始原生殖細胞 / 胚内動態

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In avian species, Primordial germ cells (PGCs) use the vascular system to reach somatic gonads. PGCs are flowed by blood circulation and transmigrate from inside of blood vessel to mesenchyme through the wall of blood vessels like metastatic cancer cells. However, there is little understanding of the mechanism underling avian PGC extravasation. I found that PGCs stop circulation at the specific vascular plexus before extravasation. In this plexus, PGCs seemed to stop circulation as they were caught in narrow vascular spaces. raising the possibility that PGCs have high stiffness. Atomic microscopy analysis revealed that PGCs had much higher stiffness than that of other blood cells. I also found that PGC stiffness was mediated by cortical acto-myosin cytoskeleton. Acto-myosin disrupted PGCs did not stop the specific vascular plexus. Thus I conclude that acto-myosin mediated-cell stiffness is critical for avian PGC extravasation.

Free Research Field

発生生物学