Cell Moyility Characteristics and their Influence on the Global Colony Spreading Dinamics

Abstract

Both single cell migration and collective cell movements play a key role in many physiological and pathological processes related to development and morphogenesis, immune response and neoplastic diseases. Cell motility characteristics at cell colonies provide opportunities to bridge either individual or cooperative cell behavior with the global spreading dynamics of colony fronts. In this chapter we describe the main types of cell migration and present experimental evidence of its relation to the colony border evolution. Two-dimensional cell colonies spreading under radial geometry and with either a relatively small or a large cell population, and under linear geometry and with a large cell population, are considered. Different growth media containing bioactive species, i.e., growth factors, and non-bioactive species that act as sites pinned to the cell colony front displacement, are used. Furthermore, cell colony growth is perturbed by micrometric topographic features at the substrate affecting cell flux at the colony border. Results from cell colony expansion kinetics and cell motility characteristics are interpreted on the basis of growth models providing new insights into the main underlying processes. The subject dealt with in this chapter may be useful for improving strategies to treat certain diseases as well as for the design of materials for tissue engineering, among other applications.