Osmotic stress affects functional properties of human melanoma cell lines

Understanding the role of microenvironment in cancer growth and metastasis is a key issue for cancer research. Here, we study the effect of osmotic pressure on the functional properties of primary and metastatic melanoma cell lines. In particular, we experimentally quantify individual cell motility...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European physical journal plus 2015-04, Vol.130 (4), p.64-15, Article 64
Main Authors: La Porta, Caterina A. M., Ghilardi, Anna, Pasini, Maria, Laurson, Lasse, Alava, Mikko J., Zapperi, Stefano, Ben Amar, Martine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied and Technical Physics
Atomic
Cancer
Complex Systems
Condensed Matter Physics
Diffusion layers
Focus Point on the Physics of Cancer
Human health and pathology
Life Sciences
Mathematical and Computational Physics
Melanoma
Molecular
Optical and Plasma Physics
Osmosis
Osmotic pressure
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Pressure effects
Regular Article
Theoretical
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Summary:Understanding the role of microenvironment in cancer growth and metastasis is a key issue for cancer research. Here, we study the effect of osmotic pressure on the functional properties of primary and metastatic melanoma cell lines. In particular, we experimentally quantify individual cell motility and transmigration capability. We then perform a circular scratch assay to study how a cancer cell front invades an empty space. Our results show that primary melanoma cells are sensitive to a low osmotic pressure, while metastatic cells are less. To better understand the experimental results, we introduce and study a continuous model for the dynamics of a cell layer and a stochastic discrete model for cell proliferation and diffusion. The two models capture essential features of the experimental results and allow to make predictions for a wide range of experimentally measurable parameters.
ISSN:2190-5444
2190-5444
DOI:10.1140/epjp/i2015-15064-x