As cells migrate — during processes such as development and wound healing — they transmit forces from their leading edge, creating a stress wave that propagates through the mass of expanding tissue.
Xavier Trepat at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, and his colleagues measured the inter- and intracellular mechanical forces in a monolayer of canine epithelial cells as the cells spread out on a substrate. As the leading front commenced migration, forces were generated that were transmitted backward from cell to cell through intercellular junctions as the cells moved forward. A slow mechanical wave propagated through the cells, building up gradients of stress that helped to direct the migration.
Nature Phys. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphys2355 (2012)
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Cells ride on stress waves. Nature 487, 142 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/487142b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/487142b