ArticleMolecular biology of the cell1999
Keratocytes generate traction forces in two phases.
Article in Molecular biology of the cell, 1999. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 177 citations in OpenAlex.
- HB-EGF enhances collective cell migration via spatial coordination of traction.APL bioengineering · 2026Article
- Cellular and Nuclear Forces: An Overview.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Review
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- Tether-guided lamellipodia enable rapid wound healing.Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- Review
- Elastic wrinkling of keratocyte lamellipodia driven by myosin-induced contractile stress.Biophysical journal · 2021Article
- A minimal mechanosensing model predicts keratocyte evolution on flexible substrates.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2020Article
- (De)form and Function: Measuring Cellular Forces with Deformable Materials and Deformable Structures.Advanced healthcare materials · 2020Review
- Rotation of stress fibers as a single wheel in migrating fish keratocytes.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Magnetic Nanotweezers for Interrogating Biological Processes in Space and Time.Accounts of chemical research · 2018Review
- Collective epithelial cell sheet adhesion and migration on polyelectrolyte multilayers with uniform and gradients of compliance.Experimental cell research · 2016Article
- A hemidesmosomal protein regulates actin dynamics and traction forces in motile keratinocytes.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2016Article
- The Role of Stress Fibers in the Shape Determination Mechanism of Fish Keratocytes.Biophysical journal · 2016Article
- Short-term effects of microstructured surfaces: role in cell differentiation toward a contractile phenotype.Journal of applied biomaterials & functional materials · 2015Article
- Controlled surface topography regulates collective 3D migration by epithelial-mesenchymal composite embryonic tissues.Biomaterials · 2015Article
- Zebrafish keratocyte explants to study collective cell migration and reepithelialization in cutaneous wound healing.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2015Article
- Article
- The molecular dynamics of crawling migration in microtubule-disrupted keratocytes.Biophysics and physicobiology · 2015Article
- On a poroviscoelastic model for cell crawling.Journal of mathematical biology · 2015Article
- Both contractile axial and lateral traction force dynamics drive amoeboid cell motility.The Journal of cell biology · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Forces generated by goldfish keratocytes and Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts have been measured with nanonewton precision and submicrometer spatial resolution. Differential interference contrast microscopy was used to visualize deformations produced by traction forces in elastic substrata, and interference reflection microscopy revealed sites of cell-substratum adhesions. Force ranged from a few nanonewtons at submicrometer spots under the lamellipodium to several hundred nanonewtons under the cell body. As cells moved forward, centripetal forces were applied by lamellipodia at sites that remained stationary on the substratum. Force increased and abruptly became lateral at the boundary of the lamellipodium and the cell body. When the cell retracted at its posterior margin, cell-substratum contact area decreased more rapidly than force, so that stress (force divided by area) increased as the cell pulled away. An increase in lateral force was associated with widening of the cell body. These mechanical data suggest an integrated, two-phase mechanism of cell motility: (1) low forces in the lamellipodium are applied in the direction of cortical flow and cause the cell body to be pulled forward; and (2) a component of force at the flanks pulls the rear margins forward toward the advancing cell body, whereas a large lateral component contributes to detachment of adhesions without greatly perturbing forward movement.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.