Abstract
Cell migration plays an important role in many physiological and pathological processes such as morphogenesis, wound healing, and tumor metastasis. Although the majority of such events occur with cells moving as a group, called collective cell migration, the mechanism of collective cell migrations has not been well understood. This study performs traction force microscopy on migrating NIH 3T3 fibroblasts by using a microfabricated device to clarify the mechanism of collective cell migration. The device consists of a reservoir for establishing a confluent cell monolayer and 24 microchannels with arrays of micropillars that are used for traction force microscopy. Here the effect of anisotropic properties in stiffness of substrate on cell migration is tested with ellipsoidal cross section of micropillars. Cells produced higher traction forces in the direction of major axis of micropillars. Moreover, cells migrated faster when the major axis of micropillars is parallel to the direction of microchannels. These results suggest that cell can sense the stiffness of substrate and produce traction forces depending on the stiffness, leading to modulation of cell migration rate.
