EL PEZ CEBRA, UN MODELO PARA ESTUDIAR MIGRACIÓN CELULAR COLECTIVA

SIGOT VALERIA

Congreso; AACyTAL; 2021

Collective cell migration is a key developmental process underlying tissue-scale remodelling in epithelial morphogenesis but also a distinctive feature of certain tumour invasions. We employed the posterior lateral line primordium (pLLP) in zebrafish as a model system to study the dynamics of cell-cell contacts remodelling and its impact in collective cell migration. Despite the morphogenesis of the lateral line primordium is a well-studied model its dynamics has been quantitated mostly by cell-tracking methods. Here, we showed that pLLP migration is analysable in terms of local velocity fields by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). By combining in vivo fluorescence microscopy and PIV analysis in zebrafish embryos expressing epithelial cadherin (E-cadh)-GFP in the pLLP it was possible to extract distinctive velocity profiles along the pLLP. PIV proved sensitive to estimate pLLP migration speed and directionality, as well as to predict polarized epithelialization and protoneuromast deposition. In this talk, I will tell how this technique, routinely used in fluid dynamics may prove promising as a tool to characterize the dynamics of collective cell movements in development and disease.