Figure 6
Ovarian cancer cells exhibit durotaxis. (A) SKOV3 cells plated on FN-coated hydrogels with rigidity of 25 kPa were allowed to adhere overnight before hydrogels were deformed with a glass micropipette and pulled orthogonal to a single migrating cell’s established direction of travel. Stretch was maintained over a period of 80 minutes with images taken every minute. (B) Example of a positive durotactic response. Time lapse imaging shows morphology and position of the SKOV3 cell at 10 minutes prior to stretch, immediately before stretch, and every ten minutes during stretch for 80 minutes. White arrow indicates direction of maintained stretch. (C) Durotactic response quantified as the turn angle (θ) determined as the angle of deflection from the original direction of travel after 75 minutes. Direction of travel at each time point established by a line drawn from the nucleus to the leading edge. (D) Quantification of turn angle of responding SKOV3 cells presented with durotactic stretch for 75 minutes compared to a similar number of control (Ctrl) cells not presented with a stimulus. Graph depicts all data points (red symbols) as well as the mean turn angle (±s.d.; n = 8 and 5 cells for control and stretched cells, respectively; p = 0.007 by the Mann-Whitney test).
