Cell Migration: Beyond Force Generation
- Louis - In a surprising discovery that turns conventional wisdom on its head, researchers at Washington university's McKelvey School of Engineering found that cells can migrate faster while...
- Amit Pathak, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, and his team observed that groups of cells moved more rapidly with reduced force when attached to soft surfaces...
- For years, Pathak's lab has studied the movement of human mammary epithelial cells, noting they move faster on rigid surfaces compared to soft ones where they tend to...
Scientists are rewriting teh rules of cell migration! Research shows cells actually move faster while generating less force,defying long-held beliefs in mechanobiology. This groundbreaking revelation, published in “PLOS Computational Biology,” challenges the conventional understanding that more force equals enhanced cellular function.This news,brought to you by news Directory 3,illuminates the intricate relationship between cells and their environment,especially concerning wound healing and cancer metastasis. The study found cells move more rapidly on aligned collagen fibers versus randomly oriented ones. This research holds significant implications for biomedicine.Discovering how these aligned fibers act as directional cues further unlocks the mystery of cell movement. Curious about the implications for the future of medicine? Discover what’s next …
Cells Move Faster With Less force, Challenging Old Assumptions
Updated june 20, 2025
St. Louis – In a surprising discovery that turns conventional wisdom on its head, researchers at Washington university’s McKelvey School of Engineering found that cells can migrate faster while generating less force. This challenges the long-held belief in mechanobiology that greater force equates to enhanced cellular function, including rapid migration.
Amit Pathak, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, and his team observed that groups of cells moved more rapidly with reduced force when attached to soft surfaces featuring aligned collagen fibers. Traditionally, it was thought cells needed to constantly exert force to overcome environmental friction. However,the new findings,published in PLOS Computational Biology,demonstrate this need diminishes under favorable conditions like aligned fibers.
For years, Pathak’s lab has studied the movement of human mammary epithelial cells, noting they move faster on rigid surfaces compared to soft ones where they tend to get stuck. This research holds significance for understanding cancer metastasis and improving wound healing processes.The latest study revealed cells migrated over 50% faster on aligned collagen fibers versus randomly oriented ones. Moreover, cells utilized aligned fibers as directional cues, facilitating group expansion.
“We wondered if you apply a force, and there’s no friction, can the cells keep going fast without generating more force?” Pathak said. “We realized it’s probably dependent on the surroundings. We thought they would be faster on aligned fibers, like railroad tracks, but what was surprising was that they were actually generating lower forces and still going faster.”
Amrit Bagchi, a former doctoral student in Pathak’s lab and current postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Engineering MechanoBiology, played a crucial role in setting up the experiment. Bagchi spent months during the COVID-19 pandemic creating a soft hydrogel in Marcus Foston’s lab, aligning the fibers using a specialized magnet before introducing cells to track their movement.
Bagchi also developed a sophisticated multi-layered motor-clutch model, representing force-generating mechanisms as the motor and traction as the clutch. He adapted this model for collective cells using three interconnected layers: cells,collagen fibers,and the underlying gel.
Bagchi said, “Although the experimental results initially surprised us, they provided the impetus to develop a theoretical model to explain the physics behind this counterintuitive behavior. Over time, we came to understand that cells use aligned fibers as a proxy for experiencing frictional forces in a way that differs considerably from the random fiber condition.”
What’s next
The model’s concept of matrix mechanosensing could provide a unified framework for understanding cell migration behaviors, potentially extending to other cell migration phenotypes.