• 한국가시화정보학회지
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.70-77
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• 2022

Skeletal muscle tissues feature cellular heterogeneity, including differentiated myofibers, myoblasts, and satellite cells. Thanks to the presence of undifferentiated myoblasts and satellite cells, skeletal muscle tissues can self-regenerate after injury. In skeletal muscle regeneration, the collective motions among these cell types must play a significant role, but little is known about the dynamic collective behavior during the regeneration. In this study, we constructed in vitro platform to visualize the migration behavior of skeletal muscle cells in specific conditions that mimic the biochemical environment of injured skeletal muscles. We then visualized the spatiotemporal distribution of stresses arising from the differential collectiveness in the cellular clusters under different conditions. From these analyses, we identified that the heterogeneous population of muscle cells exhibited distinct collective migration patterns in the injury-mimicking condition, suggesting selective activation of a specific cell type by the biochemical cues from the injured skeletal muscles.

• 한국가시화정보학회지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.43-48
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• 2015

Collective cell migration is a fundamental phenomenon observed in various biological processes such as development, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. During the collective migration, cells undergo changes in their phenotypes from those of stable to the migratory state via the process called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Recent findings in biology and biochemistry have shown that EMT is closely related to the cancer invasion or metastasis, but not much of the correlations in kinematics and physical forces between the neighboring cells are known yet. In this study, we aim to understand the cell migration and stress distribution within the expanding cell cluster. We constructed the in vitro cell cluster on the hydrogel, employed traction force microscopy (TFM) and monolayer stress microscopy (MSM) to visualize the physical forces within the expanding cell monolayer. During the expansion, cells at the cluster edge exhibited enhanced motility and developed focal adhesions that are the essential features of EMT while cells at the core of the cluster maintained the epithelial characteristics. In the aspect of mechanical stress, the cluster edge had the highest traction force of ~90 Pa directed toward the cluster core, which means that cells at the edge actively pull the substrate to make the cluster expansion. The cluster core of the tightly confined cells by neighboring cells had a lower traction force value (~60 Pa) but the highest intercellular normal stress of ~800 Pa because of the accumulation of traction from the edge of the monolayer.

• 한국가시화정보학회지
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.10-17
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• 2020

The curvature of wound boundaries has been identified as a key modulator that determines a type of force responsible for cell migration. While several studies report how certain curvatures of the boundary correlate with the rate at which the wound closes, it remains unclear how these curvatures are spatiotemporally formed to regulate the healing process. We investigated the dynamic changes in the boundary curvatures by visualizing cell migration patterns. Locally, cells at the convex boundary continuously move forward with transmitting kinetic responses behind to the cells away from the boundary, and cells at the concave boundary exhibit dramatic contracting motion, like a purse-string, when they accumulate enough negative curvatures to gain the thrust toward the void. Globally, the dynamics of boundary geometries are controlled by the diffusive flow of cells driven by the density gradient between the wound area and the cell layer.

• 한국가시화정보학회지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.38-44
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• 2018

Cellular jamming phenomenon, defined as a kinetic arrest, is a commonly observed event in dense cell aggregates in epithelial tissues. Cells lose their motility when the density of the cell population becomes too high. Yet, not much is known about how the jamming occurs and how it influences individual cells in the population. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms during the formation of the jammed state by visualizing various dynamic components such as velocity, traction, and intercellular stress. The visualized properties exhibited interrelated features in similar time domains that can be categorized into specific stages, namely migrating, transitional and steady state. During the migrating stage, cells generated spatially correlated tractions and migrations at the collective migration step and lost these properties becoming a transitional stage. These stepwise analyses presented correlative components which are expected to adjust for explaining the detailed mechanisms of cellular jamming.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제52권1호
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• pp.53-61
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• 2020

Cell migration은 embryogenesis 혹은 cancer metastasis 이외에, 물리적 손상에 의한 상처의 수복을 위해서 손상된 부위로 세포가 이동하는 매우 흔하게 관찰되는 현상 중 하나 이다. Wound healing assay는 in vitro의 이차원 평면상에서 세포의 이동을 관찰할 수 있는 기본적인 연구 기법이다. In vitro상에서 물리적 손상을 재현하는 가장 손쉬운 접근법으로서, 세포의 confluent monolayer 표면에 날카로운 도구를 이용하여 기계적인 스크레치를 내는 방법이 사용되고 있다. 완충 스프링이 탑재된 금속 핀을 96-well plate를 기반으로 하는 wound maker에 장착하여 multi-well plate 바닥 표면의 고르지 못한 굴곡과 스크레칭 팁 사이에 직각을 이루는 접촉면에서의 미세한 조절이 가능하도록 하였다. 실험용 팁으로 confluent monolayer위에 스크래치를 내었을 때에는 다양한 지그재그 패턴이 그려진 반면에, 직접 제작한 wound maker에서는 동일한 형태의 선형 wounds가 fibroblast가 seeding된 96-well plate의 각 well의 중심부에 그려짐을 확인하였다. 상용화 되어있는 몇몇 multi-well plate가 본 실험에서 제작된 wound maker와 호환되는 것을 고려하여 보았을 때에, 실시간 wound healing을 관찰하는 high content screening (HCS)실험에 있어서의 활용적인 측면에서 기존의 전형적인 polypropylene 파이펫 팁을 이용한 스크래칭 방법보다 더욱 용이한 방법임을 알 수 있다.

• 한국발생생물학회지:발생과생식
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.137-147
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• 2023

Pharyngeal pouches are an important epithelial structure controlling facial skeletal development in vertebrates. A series of pouches arise sequentially in the pharyngeal endoderm through collective cell migration followed by rearrangement of pouch-forming cells. While crucial transcription factors and signaling molecules have been identified in pouch formation, a role for Neuropilins (Nrps) in pouch development has not yet been analyzed in any vertebrates. Nrps are cell surface receptors essential for angiogenesis and axon guidance. In all vertebrates, the two Nrp family members, Nrp1 and Nrp2, are conserved in the genome, with two paralogs for Nrp1 (Nrp1a and Nrp1b) and Nrp2 (Nrp2a and Nrp2b) being identified in zebrafish. Here, I report a potential requirement of Nrp signaling in pouch development in zebrafish. nrp1a and nrp2b were expressed in the developing pouches, with sema3d, a ligand for Nrps, being expressed in the pouches. Knocking down Nrps signaling in the pharyngeal endoderm led to severe defects in pouches and facial cartilages. In addition, blocking Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activities, a downstream effector of Nrp signaling, in the pharyngeal endoderm caused similar defects in pouches and facial skeleton to those by knocking down Nrps signaling. My results suggest that Nrp signaling acts for pouch formation through MAPK.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제61권1호
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• pp.2-14
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• 2023

Trichomonas vaginalis is a flagellated protozoan that causes trichomoniasis, a common nonviral sexually transmitted infection. T. vaginalis infection is asymptomatic in most infected men but can lead to chronic infection. The inflammatory response to chronic T. vaginalis infection may contribute to prostatic diseases, such as prostatitis and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH); however, studies on the relationship between T. vaginalis infection and prostate diseases are scarce. In this review, we discuss evidence from our studies on the involvement of T. vaginalis in the pathogenesis of prostate diseases, such as prostatitis and BPH. Studies of prostatitis have demonstrated that the attachment of T. vaginalis trophozoite to prostate epithelial cells (PECs) induces inflammatory cytokine production and inflammatory cell migration, leading to prostatitis. T. vaginalis also causes pathological changes, such as inflammatory cell infiltration, acinar changes, interstitial fibrosis, and mast cell infiltration, in prostate tissues of infected rats. Thus, T. vaginalis is considered an infectious agent that triggers prostatitis. Meanwhile, studies of prostatic hyperplasia revealed that mast cells activated by T. vaginalis-infected prostate cells secreted inflammatory mediators, such as β-hexosaminidase and tryptase, which promoted proliferation of prostate stromal cell (PSC). Moreover, interleukin-6 produced by proliferating PSCs induced the multiplication of BPH-1 epithelial cells as a result of stromal-epithelial interaction, suggesting that the proliferation of T. vaginalis-infected prostate cells can be induced through crosstalk with mast cells. These collective findings suggest that T. vaginalis contributes to the progression of prostatitis and prostatic hyperplasia by creating an inflammatory microenvironment involving PECs and PSCs.

• 한국발생생물학회지:발생과생식
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.23-36
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• 2022

Pharyngeal pouches, a series of outgrowths of the pharyngeal endoderm, are a key epithelial structure governing facial skeleton development in vertebrates. Pouch formation is achieved through collective cell migration and rearrangement of pouch-forming cells controlled by actin cytoskeleton dynamics. While essential transcription factors and signaling molecules have been identified in pouch formation, regulators of actin cytoskeleton dynamics have not been reported yet in any vertebrates. Cofilin1-like (Cfl1l) is a fish-specific member of the Actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF)/Cofilin family, a critical regulator of actin cytoskeleton dynamics in eukaryotic cells. Here, we report the expression and function of cfl1l in pouch development in zebrafish. We first showed that fish cfl1l might be an ortholog of vertebrate adf, based on phylogenetic analysis of vertebrate adf and cfl genes. During pouch formation, cfl1l was expressed sequentially in the developing pouches but not in the posterior cell mass in which future pouch-forming cells are present. However, pouches, as well as facial cartilages whose development is dependent upon pouch formation, were unaffected by loss-of-function mutations in cfl1l. Although it could not be completely ruled out a possibility of a genetic redundancy of Cfl1l with other Cfls, our results suggest that the cfl1l expression in the developing pouches might be dispensable for regulating actin cytoskeleton dynamics in pouch-forming cells.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.282-288
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• 2016

단백질-단백질 결합은 수용체 단백질, 효소, 세포 골격 단백질의 세포내 위치 결정 및 기능 조절에 중요한 역할을 한다. Postsynaptic density-95/disks large/zonula occludens-1 (PDZ) 도메인을 가진 단백질들은 시냅스 가소성, 신경세포 성장과 분화뿐만 아니라 많은 질병의 병태생리에 중요하게 관여하는 scaffold 단백질로 작용한다. Multi-PDZ domain protein 1 (MUPP1)은 13개 PDZ 도메인을 가지는 단백질로서 세포막 수용체 군집화, 신호전달 복합체 구성, 세포 골격 조정에 대한 매개 역할을 하는 것으로 알려지고 있지만 MUPP1의 세포 내 기능은 아직 명확히 밝혀지지 않았다. 본 연구에서 MUPP1의 아미노 말단 PDZ 도메인과 결합하는 새로운 단백질을 규명하기 위하여 효모 two-hybrid 방법을 이용하였고 Wdpcp (전에 Fritz로 알려짐)이 MUPP1과 결합하는 것을 확인하였다. Wdpcp는 planar cell polarity (PCP) effector로서 세포 이동과 섬모형성에 관여하는 것으로 알려져 있다. Wdpcp는 MUPP1의 첫 번째 PDZ 도메인과 결합하지만, 다른 PDZ 도메인과는 결합하지 않았다. 또한 MUPP1와 Wdpcp의 결합에서 Wdpcp의 C-말단부위가 결합에 필수적임을 효모 two-hybrid 방법으로 확인하였다. 이러한 단백질간 결합은 glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay, 공동면역침강, HEK-293T 세포에서의 발현위치를 통하여 추가적으로 확인하였다. 이러한 결과들은, MUPP1과 Wdpcp 결합은 세포내 액틴 다이내믹스(dynamics)와 세포이동 조절에 역할을 할 가능성을 시사한다.