Lamellipodia and Membrane Blebs Drive Efficient Electrotactic Migration of Rat Walker Carcinosarcoma Cells WC 256

PLoS One. 2016 Feb 10;11(2):e0149133. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149133. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The endogenous electric field (EF) may provide an important signal for directional cell migration during wound healing, embryonic development and cancer metastasis but the mechanism of cell electrotaxis is poorly understood. Additionally, there is no research addressing the question on the difference in electrotactic motility of cells representing various strategies of cell movement-specifically blebbing vs. lamellipodial migration. In the current study we constructed a unique experimental model which allowed for the investigation of electrotactic movement of cells of the same origin but representing different modes of cell migration: weakly adherent, spontaneously blebbing (BC) and lamellipodia forming (LC) WC256 cells. We report that both BC and LC sublines show robust cathodal migration in a physiological EF (1-3 V/cm). The directionality of cell movement was completely reversible upon reversing the field polarity. However, the full reversal of cell direction after the change of EF polarity was much faster in the case of BC (10 minutes) than LC cells (30 minutes). We also investigated the distinct requirements for Rac, Cdc42 and Rho pathways and intracellular Ca2+ in electrotaxis of WC256 sublines forming different types of cell protrusions. It was found that Rac1 is required for directional movement of LC to a much greater extent than for BC, but Cdc42 and RhoA are more crucial for BC than for LC cells. The inhibition of ROCK did not affect electrotaxis of LC in contrast to BC cells. The results also showed that intracellular Ca2+ is essential only for the electrotactic reaction of BC cells. Moreover, inhibition of MLCK and myosin II did not affect the electrotaxis of LC in contrast to BC cells. In conclusion, our results revealed that both lamellipodia and membrane blebs can efficiently drive electrotactic migration of WC 256 carcinosarcoma cells, however directional migration is mediated by different signalling pathways.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Actins / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Calcium / chemistry
  • Carcinoma 256, Walker / metabolism*
  • Cell Membrane / metabolism
  • Cell Movement*
  • Electrochemistry
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
  • Neoplasm Metastasis
  • Phenotype
  • Plasmids / metabolism
  • Proteome
  • Pseudopodia / metabolism*
  • Rats
  • Wound Healing
  • cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein / metabolism
  • rac GTP-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • rho-Associated Kinases / metabolism
  • rhoA GTP-Binding Protein / metabolism

Substances

  • Actins
  • Proteome
  • rho-Associated Kinases
  • cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein
  • rac GTP-Binding Proteins
  • rhoA GTP-Binding Protein
  • Calcium

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a grant from the National Science Centre 2012/07/B/NZ3/02909, Poland. Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology of Jagiellonian University is a partner of the Leading National Research Center (KNOW) supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The LC-MS/MS measurements were done with the equipment spectrometer Q-Exactive purchased by the European Regional Development Fund in the framework of the Polish Innovation Economy Operational Program (contract No. POIG.02.01.00-12-167/08, project Malopolska Center of Biotechnology) and supported by grant UMO-2012/05/B/NZ4/02428 from the National Science Center, Krakow, Poland. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.