Trade-off movement between hydraulic resistance escape and shear stress escape by cancer cells

Jialin Shi; Yiteng Jin; Shujing Wang; Chunxiong Luo

doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2024.12.021

Trade-off movement between hydraulic resistance escape and shear stress escape by cancer cells

Biophys J. 2024 Dec 21:S0006-3495(24)04102-X. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.12.021. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jialin Shi¹, Yiteng Jin², Shujing Wang³, Chunxiong Luo⁴

Affiliations

¹ The State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China; Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China; Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
² Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.
³ The State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China; Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁴ The State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China; Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China; Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. Electronic address: pkuluocx@pku.edu.cn.

PMID: 39719013
DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.12.021

Abstract

In the circulatory system, the microenvironment surrounding cancer cells is complex and involves multiple coupled factors. We selected two core physical factors, shear stress and hydraulic resistance, and constructed a microfluidic device with dual negative inputs to study the trade-off movement behavior of cancer cells when facing coupled factors. We detected significant shear stress escape phenomena in the MDA-MB-231 cell line and qualitatively explained this behavior using a cellular force model. Through the dual validation of substrate anti-cell-adhesion modification and employment of the MCF-7 cell line, we further substantiated the predictability and feasibility of our model. This study provides an explanation for the trade-off underlying the direction-choosing mechanism of cancer cells when facing environmental selection.