Directed cell migration is essential in both physiological and pathological situations. Many guidance cues have been extensively investigated in the past decades, to be able to regulate directional cell migration, including chemical, physiological and haptotactic cues. In the past years, we have focused on the roles of physiological electric field in the guidance of directed cell migration. It is well accepted that physiological electric fields exist both extracellularly and intracellularly with different functions, and interestingly, endogenous EFs exist in not only physiological but also pathological events. For instance, the existence of a small current in developing embryos which is also known as the endogenous electric field has been tested, such as the blastopore in Xenopus, chicken embryos, and etc. It has been also demonstrated that endogenous electric fields exist at the wound edges of injured cornea and skin. Physiological electric field is among many other guidance cues controlling an important cellular response – directed cell migration in response to stimuli, a phenomenon named electrotaxis or galvanotaxis. We and others have extensively demonstrated that physiological EFs could control directional cell migration, and that several signalling pathways are required for the regulation of such event. In the current study, we used Dictyostelium model to further explore the molecular and genetic mechanisms of how electrotaxis is controlled, by extensively investigating candidate molecules and genes in such regulation. We found that PI3K, PTEN and Ras signalling pathways are largely involved in the regulation of electrotaxis, Ras plays more dominant roles in this event in comparison with PI3K and PTEN, which only partially contributed towards the electrotactic response of the Dictyostelium cells. Asymmetric redistribution of signalling molecules are shown to play an essential role in the initiation and maintenance of the electrotactic response of the cells.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:540323 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Gu, Yu |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=165863 |
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