Journal
NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS
Volume 23, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
IOP Publishing Ltd
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/ac254e
Keywords
biophysics; tissue formation; cell contractility; multicellular spheroids; blebbistatin; actin cortex; actin stress fibers
Categories
Funding
- European Research Council [ERC-741350]
- European Union [668039]
- DFG [267494027, INST 268/296-1 FUGG]
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Cell contractility can be divided into two types, based on actin stress fibers and isotropic contractions within the actomyosin cortex. Epithelial cells exhibit higher cortical tension compared to mesenchymal cells, which allows for differentiation between the two cell types based on contractility mechanisms.
Cell contractility is mainly imagined as a force dipole-like interaction based on actin stress fibers that pull on cellular adhesion sites. Here, we present a different type of contractility based on isotropic contractions within the actomyosin cortex. Measuring mechanosensitive cortical contractility of suspended cells among various cell lines allowed us to exclude effects caused by stress fibers. We found that epithelial cells display a higher cortical tension than mesenchymal cells, directly contrasting to stress fiber-mediated contractility. These two types of contractility can even be used to distinguish epithelial from mesenchymal cells. These findings from a single cell level correlate to the rearrangement effects of actomyosin cortices within cells assembled in multicellular aggregates. Epithelial cells form a collective contractile actin cortex surrounding multicellular aggregates and further generate a high surface tension reminiscent of tissue boundaries. Hence, we suggest this intercellular structure as to be crucial for epithelial tissue integrity. In contrast, mesenchymal cells do not form collective actomyosin cortices reducing multicellular cohesion and enabling cell escape from the aggregates.
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