Understanding the crosstalk between mechanical and chemical guidance in 3D cell migration*

Critical to many physiological and pathological processes, human cells exhibit motility responses to a variety of chemical and mechanical environmental factors. This includes both contact guidance, where cells migrate along the ECM fibers axes; and chemotaxis, in which cells move against the gradient of a chemoattractant. Both cases had been studied extensively. However, there are some synergestic effects that are not fully characterized in 3D cell migration . To reveal the combined effects of mechanical and chemical guidance, and their possible crosstalk, we develop a magneto-micro-fluidics device to individually control the chemoattractant gradient as well as contact guidance cues . To objectively characterize the cell migration and morphologies, we developed a deep learning based cell tracking method. This novel experimental platform enables us to observe how cells respond to chemotaxis and contact guidance cues in both parallel and perpendicular orientations with respect to each other, as well as in varying strengths. In our continuing work, we will develop a mathematical model to recapitulate our experimental observations and fully characterize the cell response to coupled chemical and mechanical cues.