The fluid surrounding the cancer cells reportedly influences their migration speed which may affect the progression of the disease.
The Importance of Fluid In Cancer Cell Migration
Yizeng Li, an assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering at Binghamton University, State University of New York, penned an article about cell migration, or how cells move within the body. The process is important in normal body function and disease progression.
Yahoo! News shared the article, which revealed a surprising finding. According to Li, the movement of the cells allows the body parts to grow and develop, heal wounds, and metastasize tumors.
In the last century, several studies have concentrated on the "solid" environment of cells. However, researchers are now turning toward their "fluid" environment, and the finding was quite surprising.
The cells in the human body are constantly exposed to fluids like water. Water flows across the breast cancer cells and influences how they move and metastasize because the amount of water traveling in and out could cause them to shrink or swell.
The viscosity or thickness of fluid in the body varies from organ to organ and health to disease. For example, the fluid in cancer cells in tumors is more vicious compared to normal cells in healthy tissues.
Li and his colleagues compared how breast cancer cells grow in two confined channels - one filled with fluid of normal viscosity and the second with a fluid of high viscosity. They found that the cells in high-viscosity channels counterintuitively sped up by 40%.
The results were unexpected because the fundamental laws of physics suggest that inert particles should slow down in high-viscosity fluids due to increased resistance.
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Cancer Cells Metastasize Faster In High Viscosity Fluids
The researchers were initially surprised by the results. However, they later found that high-viscosity fluids promote the growth of protein filaments called actin, which open channels in the cell's membrane and increase water intake.
The cell expands from water and activates another channel that takes in calcium ions. The calcium ions activate another protein filament called myosin, which induces the cell to move.
The cascade of activities induces changes within the cell that generate more force for them to overcome resistance imposed by high-viscosity fluid. Thus, the cells are not inert at all.
The team also discovered that cells have "memory." Once exposed to high-viscosity fluid, they tend to speed up their migration even if they are moved to a liquid with normal viscosity.
Li said they put cells in high viscosity medium for several days and transferred them to a normal viscosity medium. They noticed that those cells still move at a faster speed even when in normal viscosity fluids. However, it remains unclear how cells retain their memory.
The team tested the animal finding to see if it still held beyond the Petri dishes. The researchers tested human breast cancer cells in a high-viscosity medium for six days and placed them in a normal-viscosity medium before injecting the cells into chicken embryos and mice.
The results were the same - the cells pre-exposed to high viscosity medium increased their ability to migrate into the surrounding tissues, speeding up metastasis compared to those not pre-exposed. Thus, the viscosity of fluids in the cell's surrounding environment is a cue that could promote cancer cells to metastasize.
Li suggests building imaging and analysis techniques to examine how cells respond to changes in fluid viscosity. Doing so could help researchers identify potential treatments to reduce the spread of cancer.
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