By working together, cells can extend their senses beyond their direct environment

The story of the princess and pea evokes an image of a very sensitive young royal woman so refined, she can feel a pea under a pile of mattresses. Regarding human biology, it also takes an abnormal individual to feel far beyond his environment, in this case, a cancer cell. Now researchers also know that normal cells can draw a similar tip by working together.

Research published in the journal PNA By engineers from the University of Washington in St. Louis offers a clearer image of how cells can feel beyond their direct environment. Research can help deepen how cancer moves and points to potential targets to stop this migration.

Amit Pathak, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at the McKelvey School of Engineering, explained that the “depth mechanism-mechanism” is the way in which cells feel beyond what they are attached to. In previous research, he and his colleagues have discovered that abnormal cells with a “high polarity at the rear” (indicative of migratory cells) can feel the most distant depth, up to 10 microns beyond their adhered environment.

Part of this sensory capacity has to do with the way in which the cell deforms the surrounding fibrous collagen to reach the extracellular matrix (ECM) and “feel” the next layer, whether it is a hard tumor, soft tissues or bone just around the turn. The unique abnormal cell can “feel” the rigidity of the ECM and define its course according to this input.

The new research shows that a collective of epithelial cells, found on the surface of the tissues, can do the same, then some, working together to gather enough strength to “feel” through the 100 microns fibrous collagen layer.

“Because it is a collective of cells, they generate higher forces,” said Pathak, who is the author of research with a doctorate. Hongsheng Yu student.

According to their models, this occurs in two separate phases of grouping and cell migration. What these clustering cells “feel” will have an impact on migration and dispersion.

The additional detection power of cancer cells means that they can get out of the tumor environment and escape detection, freely migrating thanks to their improved sense of what awaits us, even in a gentle environment. The next researchers’ next step will be to understand how it works and if some regulators allow the range. These regulators could be potential targets for the treatment of cancer. If a cancer cell cannot “feel” to come, its toxic spread can be defeated.