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Calcium Flickers Steer Cell Migration
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Calcium Flickers Steer Cell Migration

Chaoliang Wei, Long-Sheng Song, Xianhua Wang, Min Chen, Kunfu Ouyang and Heping Cheng
Nature (London), Vol.457(7231), pp.901-905
02/12/2009
DOI: 10.1038/nature07577
PMCID: PMC3505761
PMID: 19118385

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Abstract

Directional movement is a property common to all cell types during development and is critical to tissue remodelling and regeneration after damage 1 – 3 . In migrating cells, calcium plays a multifunctional role in directional sensing, cytoskeleton redistribution, traction force generation, and relocation of focal adhesions 1 , 4 – 7 . Here we visualise, for the first time, high-calcium microdomains (“calcium flickers”), and their patterned activation in migrating fibroblasts. Calcium flicker activity is dually coupled to membrane tension ( via TRPM7, a stretch-activated Ca 2+ -permeant channel of the transient receptor potential superfamily 8 ) and chemoattractant signal transduction ( via type 2 inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors). Interestingly, calcium flickers are most active at the leading lamella of migrating cells, displaying a 4:1 front-to-rear polarisation opposite to the global calcium gradient 6 . When exposed to a PDGF gradient perpendicular to cell movement, asymmetric calcium flicker activity develops across the lamella and promotes the turning of migrating fibroblasts. These findings illustrate how the exquisite spatiotemporal organisation of calcium microdomains can orchestrate complex cellular processes such as cell migration.

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