Researchers from the UPC and the IBEC discover superformable cells
Researchers from the UPC and the IBEC discover superformable cells
One of the most enviable skills of superheroes is their ability to deform their bodies beyond imaginable limits. In a study published today in the journal Nature, scientists from the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) (Catalonia, Spain) have discovered the mechanism that explains how our cells can do just that: deform Extreme form without breaking.
With each beat of the heart and each inspiration in the lungs, the cells of our body routinely experience large deformations. These deformations are even more pronounced when cells are organized to shape our organs at the embryonic stage, or when they invade healthy tissues through narrow pores during cancer metastasis. Until now, the mechanism that allowed cells to deform without breaking was a mystery.
In its last article published this week in Nature, the research of the IBEC, promoted by the Banking Foundation "la Caixa", and the UPC present a new physical property of the cells, which they call active superelasticity, which explains their unusual capacity to withstand extreme deformations.
The team, led by Marino Arroyo and Xavier Trepat, developed a technique to subject epithelial tissues (thin cell layers that cover the internal and external surfaces of the body) to very large deformations, up to four times their original size. These tissues are fundamental for life, as they protect the body from radiation, pollutants and pathogens. They are also responsible for the exchange of gases in the lungs, the absorption of nutrients in the intestine and the excretion of urine in the kidneys.
Superdeformed cells surrounded by others minimally deformed. The cell nucleus is shown in blue, the actin filaments in red and the keratin filaments in green. (Photo: UPC)
"Most materials do not tolerate a large stretch well. As they become deformed, they try to return to their initial relaxed state - like a rubber band -, which can break when the tension is very high ", explains Professor Marino Arroyo, researcher of the Numerical Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering group. (LACÀN) of the UPC and associate researcher of the IBEC. The team discovered that epithelial tissues have a different and unusual mechanical behavior. To his surprise, the epithelia did not break during the deformation, and recovered their initial size in a completely reversible manner upon the cessation of tension. But the least foreseeable was to see how some cells of the tissue were barely deformed, while others did so in an extreme way, increasing their area more than ten times.
The authors have identified the molecular mechanisms that explain this physical behavior, which they call "active superelasticity" in analogy with the behavior of some high-tech metal alloys used in medical applications. As the tissue is stretched, the cells that compose it have the ability to remain in a relaxed state or change to a superdeformed state without causing them any "discomfort." As a consequence, these tissues can withstand an increasing deformation thanks to their cells progressively changing to their superdeformed state without increasing the tension, which would otherwise compromise the integrity or cohesion of the tissue.
"We are all familiar with superheroes like Ms. Marvel or The Incredibles, who are capable of deforming their bodies beyond human limits. It is fun to think that our cells are also super deformable. We are made of superhero cells! "Says Xavier Trepat, ICREA researcher at IBEC and associate professor at the UB. "Understanding this amazing mechanical behavior of the epithelial tissues could help us develop better artificial organs or new bionic technologies such as organs-on-a-chip," adds Ernest Latorre, of the Integrative Cell and Tissue Dynamics group at IBEC and first author of the study. .
This study has received funding from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FEDER), the Generalitat of Catalonia and the CERCA program of the European Research Council (CoG-616480, CoG-681434, CoG-617233 and StG-640525), from the Commission European (project H2020-FETPROACT-01-2016-731957), the Carlos III Health Institute of the Deutsche ForschungGemeinschaft and the Obra Social Foundation "la Caixa". (Source: UPC)
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