Fig. 3
From: Confinement and substrate topography control cell migration in a 3D computational model
Quantification of the effects of substrate curvature on cell motility. a Definition of signed substrate curvature. b Snapshots of cell shapes moving on substrates of various curvatures. c Cell velocity of four different cells as a function of the substrate curvature (1/R with R the radius of curvature). The vertical black dashed line marks the flat substrate. Lamellipodium- and wall-pushing cells were studied, for two different driving strengths each. For all cell types, migration is stalled by strongly negative curvatures (cells driven more strongly continue to move on more strongly negative curvatures). Close to this stalling curvature, cells elongate in the direction of motion. The cell speed increases with the signed curvature, passing by the flat state. The black straight line is a geometric scaling approximation, V(R) = V0[1 + h/(2R)], explaining the approximately linear behavior for small curvatures (see text). In the case of lamellipodium-type cells, at a certain positive curvature, a competition between the perturbed crescent-shape and a bullet-like shape with cylindrical symmetry sets in, leading to complex dynamics, namely shape and position oscillations inside the tube. Finally the bullet shape stabilizes for even thinner tubes. Wall-pushing (and hence less driven) cells become typically stopped in this region of competition, before they attain similar bullet shapes at higher substrate curvatures
