ArticleJournal of cell science2019
Migration through physical constraints is enabled by MAPK-induced cell softening via actin cytoskeleton re-organization.
Article in Journal of cell science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Reversibility of Nuclear and 3D Genomic Changes in Non-Cancerous Fibroblasts After Constricted Migration.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Targeting cancer cell stiffness and metastasis with clinical therapeutics.Clinical & experimental metastasis · 2025Review
- Interplay between material properties and cellular effects drives distinct pattern of interaction of graphene oxide with cancer and non-cancer cells.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2025Article
- The impact of compression and confinement in tumor growth and progression: emerging concepts in cancer mechanobiology.Frontiers in materials · 2025Article
- Predicting bladder cancer survival with high accuracy: insights from MAPK pathway-related genes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Cancer cell response to extrinsic and intrinsic mechanical cue: opportunities for tumor apoptosis strategies.Regenerative biomaterials · 2024Review
- Graphdiyne Oxide-Mediated Photodynamic Therapy Boosts Enhancive T-Cell Immune Responses by Increasing Cellular Stiffness.International journal of nanomedicine · 2023Article
- Lens culinaris agglutinin inhibits human hepatoma cell migration via mannose and fucose-mediated ERK1/2 and JNK1/2/3 signalling pathway.Molecular biology reports · 2022Article
- Elucidation of CKAP4-remodeled cell mechanics in driving metastasis of bladder cancer through aptamer-based target discovery.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Confined migration promotes cancer metastasis through resistance to anoikis and increased invasiveness.eLife · 2022Article
- THEM6-mediated reprogramming of lipid metabolism supports treatment resistance in prostate cancer.EMBO molecular medicine · 2022Article
- Effects of forces on chromatin.APL bioengineering · 2021Review
- Fatty acid synthase as a feasible biomarker for triple negative breast cancer stem cell subpopulation cultured on electrospun scaffolds.Materials today. Bio · 2021Article
- Dynamically Modulated Core-Shell Microfibers to Study the Effect of Depth Sensing of Matrix Stiffness on Stem Cell Fate.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2021Article
- Selection of established tumour cells through narrow diameter micropores enriches for elevated Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK MAPK signalling and enhanced tumour growth.Small GTPases · 2021Article
- Organotypic platform for studying cancer cell metastasis.Experimental cell research · 2021Article
- Biomechanical Properties of Cancer Cells.Cells · 2021Review
- Review
- PI3K Driver Mutations: A Biophysical Membrane-Centric Perspective.Cancer research · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Cancer cells are softer than the normal cells, and metastatic cells are even softer. These changes in biomechanical properties contribute to cancer progression by facilitating cell movement through physically constraining environments. To identify properties that enabled passage through physical constraints, cells that were more efficient at moving through narrow membrane micropores were selected from established cell lines. By examining micropore-selected human MDA MB 231 breast cancer and MDA MB 435 melanoma cancer cells, membrane fluidity and nuclear elasticity were excluded as primary contributors. Instead, reduced actin cytoskeleton anisotropy, focal adhesion density and cell stiffness were characteristics associated with efficient passage through constraints. By comparing transcriptomic profiles between the parental and selected populations, increased Ras/MAPK signalling was linked with cytoskeleton rearrangements and cell softening. MEK inhibitor treatment reversed the transcriptional, cytoskeleton, focal adhesion and elasticity changes. Conversely, expression of oncogenic KRas in parental MDA MB 231 cells, or oncogenic BRaf in parental MDA MB 435 cells, significantly reduced cell stiffness. These results reveal that MAPK signalling, in addition to tumour cell proliferation, has a significant role in regulating cell biomechanics.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
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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.