Fig. 2: CAFs compress cancer cells using actomyosin contractility.

a Images before (left) and after laser ablation (right) in fresh tumor slices (quantified in b). Cancer cells (green), stroma (CAFs) (magenta). Dashed cyan line - contour of cancer cells. Solid cyan lines delineate ROIs. Laser cut region represented in white. White vectors, tissue displacement 40 s after ablation. Scale bar, 100 µm. Scale vector, 1 µm. b Displacement magnitude in ROIs as a function of time after ablation (left). Vertical dashed line (t = 0) indicates the ablation time. Polar histogram of displacement angle probability relative to the cut (right) 40 s after ablation. n = 31 ablations from N = 7 mice. c, Montage showing images before (left) and after laser ablation (right) in tumor slices (quantified in panel d). Cancer cells (green), stroma (CAFs) (magenta). Dashed cyan line - contour of cancer cells. Solid cyan lines delineate ROIs. Laser cut region, white. White vectors, tissue displacement maps 40 s after ablation. Yellow vectors, average displacement for each ROI (for visualization purposes, yellow vectors are not scaled). Scale bar, 100 µm. Scale vector, 1 µm. d Displacement magnitude of cancer cells and CAFs as a function of time after ablation (left). Vertical dashed line (t = 0) indicates the ablation time. Polar histograms of displacement angle probability relative to the cut 40 s after ablation. n = 74 ablations from N = 7 mice. e Montage showing images before (left) and after laser ablation (right) in in vitro co-cultures. Cancer cells (green), CAFs (magenta). Dashed cyan line - contour of cancer cells. Solid cyan lines delineate ROIs. Laser cut region (white box). White vectors, tissue displacement 40 s after ablation. Yellow vectors, average cumulative displacement for each ROI. Scale bar, 100 µm. Scale vector, 5 µm. f Displacement magnitude of cancer cells and CAFs as a function of time (left) after ablation. Vertical dashed line (t = 0) indicates the ablation time. Polar histograms of displacement angle probability relative to the cut, for CAFs and cancer cells (right) 40 s after ablation. n = 13 ablations from N = 2 independent experiments g Displacement magnitude of cancer cells and CAFs as a function of time after ablation, in control tumor slices, slices treated with blebbistatin or tumor slices contacting Myosin IIA-KO CAFs (left). Polar histograms of displacement angle probability relative to the cut 40 s after ablation. n = 74 ablations from N = 7 mice (control), n = 79 ablations from N = 6 mice (Myosin IIA KO), and n = 58 ablations from N = 5 mice (Blebbistatin). Data represented as mean ± SEM for (b, d, f, g).