APS March Meeting 2016
Volume 61, Number 2
Monday–Friday, March 14–18, 2016;
Baltimore, Maryland
Session B39: Physics of Cancer and Development I
11:15 AM–2:15 PM,
Monday, March 14, 2016
Room: 342
Sponsoring
Units:
DBIO GSOFT
Chair: Arpita Upadhyaya, University of Maryland
Abstract ID: BAPS.2016.MAR.B39.1
Abstract: B39.00001 : Real-time Visualization of Tissue Dynamics during Embryonic Development and Malignant Transformation
11:15 AM–11:51 AM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Kenneth Yamada
(National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research)
Tissues undergo dramatic changes in organization during embryonic
development, as well as during cancer progression and invasion. Recent
advances in microscopy now allow us to visualize and track directly the
dynamic movements of tissues, their constituent cells, and cellular
substructures. This behavior can now be visualized not only in regular
tissue culture on flat surfaces (`2D' environments), but also in a variety
of 3D environments that may provide physiological cues relevant to
understanding dynamics within living organisms. Acquisition of imaging data
using various microscopy modalities will provide rich opportunities for
determining the roles of physical factors and for computational modeling of
complex processes in living tissues.
Direct visualization of real-time motility is providing insight into biology
spanning multiple spatio-temporal scales. Many cells in our body are known
to be in contact with connective tissue and other forms of extracellular
matrix. They do so through microscopic cellular adhesions that bind to
matrix proteins. In particular, fluorescence microscopy has revealed that
cells dynamically probe and bend the matrix at the sites of cell adhesions,
and that 3D matrix architecture, stiffness, and elasticity can each regulate
migration of the cells. Conversely, cells remodel their local matrix as
organs form or tumors invade. Cancer cells can invade tissues using
microscopic protrusions that degrade the surrounding matrix; in this case,
the local matrix protein concentration is more important for inducing the
micro-invasive protrusions than stiffness. On the length scales of tissues,
transiently high rates of individual cell movement appear to help establish
organ architecture. In fact, isolated cells can self-organize to form tissue
structures. In all of these cases, in-depth real-time visualization will
ultimately provide the extensive data needed for computer modeling and for
testing hypotheses in which physical forces interact closely with cell
signaling to form organs or promote tumor invasion.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2016.MAR.B39.1