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A distinctive role for focal adhesion proteins in three-dimensional cell motility

Nature Cell Biology volume 12, pages 598–604 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Focal adhesions are large multi-protein assemblies that form at the basal surface of cells on planar dishes, and that mediate cell signalling, force transduction and adhesion to the substratum. Although much is known about focal adhesion components in two-dimensional (2D) systems, their role in migrating cells in a more physiological three-dimensional (3D) matrix is largely unknown. Live-cell microscopy shows that for cells fully embedded in a 3D matrix, focal adhesion proteins, including vinculin, paxillin, talin, α-actinin, zyxin, VASP, FAK and p130Cas, do not form aggregates but are diffusely distributed throughout the cytoplasm. Despite the absence of detectable focal adhesions, focal adhesion proteins still modulate cell motility, but in a manner distinct from cells on planar substrates. Rather, focal adhesion proteins in matrix-embedded cells regulate cell speed and persistence by affecting protrusion activity and matrix deformation, two processes that have no direct role in controlling 2D cell speed. This study shows that membrane protrusions constitute a critical motility/matrix-traction module that drives cell motility in a 3D matrix.

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Figure 1: Regulated formation of focal adhesions in 2D, 2.5D, and 3D collagen matrix microenvironments.
Figure 2: Regulation of 2D cell motility by focal adhesion proteins is not predictive of regulation of 3D cell motility in matrix.
Figure 3: Extent of focal adhesion protein-mediated protrusion activity predicts 3D cell speed.
Figure 4: Regulation of 3D cell-matrix interactions by focal adhesion proteins.
Figure 5: Regulation of cell motility on compliant substrates by focal adhesion proteins.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support from NIH (CA143868, GM084204, GM080673, and CA85839). S.I.F. was supported by ARCS and NSF-GRFP. We thank Michael McCaffery and Ned Perkins for help with confocal microscopy, members of the Wirtz and Longmore groups for helpful discussions, and John Isaacs of JHMI and his group for generously providing E006AA prostate cancer cells.

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Author notes

  1. Stephanie I. Fraley and Yunfeng Feng: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    Stephanie I. Fraley, Ranjini Krishnamurthy, Dong-Hwee Kim, Alfredo Celedon & Denis Wirtz

  2. Johns Hopkins Physical Sciences in Oncology Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    Stephanie I. Fraley, Yunfeng Feng, Dong-Hwee Kim, Gregory D. Longmore & Denis Wirtz

  3. Departments of Medicine and Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, 63110, MO, USA

    Yunfeng Feng & Gregory D. Longmore

  4. Washington University BRIGHT Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, 63110, MO, USA

    Yunfeng Feng & Gregory D. Longmore

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, P.O. Box 306, Santiago, 6904411, Chile

    Alfredo Celedon

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Contributions

Y.F. generated knockdowns; R.K. helped with data analysis and figures; D.K. supplied PA substrates of varying stiffness; A.C. developed Matlab code to track beads in traction experiments; S.F. performed all experiments and analysis and co-wrote the manuscript; G.L. and D.W. co-supervised the project and co-wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gregory D. Longmore or Denis Wirtz.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Fraley, S., Feng, Y., Krishnamurthy, R. et al. A distinctive role for focal adhesion proteins in three-dimensional cell motility. Nat Cell Biol 12, 598–604 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2062

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