揭示多细胞上皮形态发生和疾病的分子起源

上皮细胞在基底上因受弹性、边缘和界面三个效应的共同作用，可以形成形态丰富的粘着单层。细胞通过粘着斑感受其外界环境，可看作是细胞与基质之间的机械连接。之前的力生物学研究主要集中于单个细胞，而来自美国宾州大学的张宿林教授等却探索了多细胞的受力反应，探讨了单层细胞作为整体如何传递和分配牵引力。他们基于分子的热力学模型、单层-底物弹性的整合和力-介导的粘着形成，建立了热力学模型，提出了粘着形成机制，并通过显微观察牵引力作用等实验测量方法来验证该模型的预测结果。他们发现，细胞和基底之间的耦合（通过粘附分子）属于高度非线性耦合；细胞外牵引力和细胞间张力与细胞单层尺寸相关，也与基质刚度有关，提示细胞内、外分子之间存在相互信息交流；在细胞单层边缘，粘着斑通过与细胞外基质的相互作用产生了强大牵引力，而在细胞单层的中央，细胞应激水平上升的同时仅遭受到较低牵引力。这些结果将有助于解释局部环境如何影响细胞决策，也将促进上皮组织中诸如形态发生或集体迁移等更为复杂问题的研究。综上，该模型为多用途计算框架奠定了坚实的基础，可用来揭示多细胞上皮形态发生和疾病的分子起源。

Active cell-matrix coupling regulates cellular force landscapes of cohesive epithelial monolayers

Tiankai Zhao,Yao Zhang,Qiong Wei,Xuechen Shi,Peng Zhao,Long-Qing Chen&Sulin Zhang

Abstract Epithelial cells can assemble into cohesive monolayers with rich morphologies on substrates due to competition between elastic, edge, and interfacial effects. Here we present a molecularly based thermodynamic model, integrating monolayer and substrate elasticity, and force-mediated focal adhesion formation, to elucidate the active biochemical regulation over the cellular force landscapes in cohesive epithelial monolayers, corroborated by microscopy and immunofluorescence studies. The predicted extracellular traction and intercellular tension are both monolayer size and substrate stiffness dependent, suggestive of cross-talks between intercellular and extracellular activities. Our model sets a firm ground toward a versatile computational framework to uncover the molecular origins of morphogenesis and disease in multicellular epithelia.