Relationship between macrophage differentiation and the chemotactic activity toward damaged myoblast cells

STIM1-dependent store-operated calcium entry mediates sex differences in macrophage chemotaxis and monocyte recruitment

Infiltration of monocyte-derived cells to sites of infection and injury is greater in males than in females, due in part, to increased chemotaxis, the process of directed cell movement toward a chemical signal. The mechanisms governing sexual dimorphism in chemotaxis are not known. We hypothesized a role for the store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) pathway in regulating chemotaxis by modulating leading and trailing edge membrane dynamics. We measured the chemotactic response of bone marrow-derived macrophages migrating toward complement component 5a (C5a). Chemotactic ability was dependent on sex and inflammatory phenotype (M0, M1, and M2), and correlated with SOCE. Notably, females exhibited a significantly lower magnitude of SOCE than males. When we knocked out the SOCE gene, stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1), it eliminated SOCE and equalized chemotaxis across both sexes. Analysis of membrane dynamics at the leading and trailing edges showed that STIM1 influences chemotaxis by facilitating retraction of the trailing edge. Using BTP2 to pharmacologically inhibit SOCE mirrored the effects of STIM1 knockout, demonstrating a central role of STIM/Orai-mediated calcium signaling. Importantly, by monitoring the recruitment of adoptively transferred monocytes in an in vivo model of peritonitis, we show that increased infiltration of male monocytes during infection is dependent on STIM1. These data support a model in which STIM1-dependent SOCE is necessary and sufficient for mediating the sex difference in monocyte recruitment and macrophage chemotactic ability by regulating trailing edge dynamics.

Reduction of Real-Time Imaging of M1 Macrophage Chemotaxis toward Damaged Muscle Cells is PI3K-Dependent

Macrophages migrate and invade into damaged muscle rapidly and are important for muscle repair and subsequent regeneration. The exact cellular and biological events that cause macrophage migration toward injured muscle are not completely understood. In this study, the effect of macrophage differentiation on the chemotactic capability to invade local damaged muscle was investigated using an in vitro model of muscle injury. We used C2C12 cell myoblasts and J774 cell macrophages, and the "killed-C2C12" cells were combined with live C2C12 cells as a partially damaged muscle model. The cultured J774 cells, with or without lipopolysaccharide (LPS), were treated with Ly294002 (Ly), which is an inhibitor of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). In order to evaluate the polarization effect of LPS stimulation on J774 cells, expression of cell surface Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), CD11c and CCR2, and expression of F-actin intensity, were analyzed by flow cytometry. The real-time horizontal chemotaxis assay of J774 cells was tested using the TAXIScan device. The expressions of TLR4, CD11c, and F-actin intensity in LPS-treated cells were significantly higher than those in Ctrl cells. In LPS-treated cells, the chemotactic activity toward damaged muscle cells completely disappeared. Moreover, the reduced chemotaxis depended far more on directionality than velocity. However, Ly treatment reversed the reduced chemotactic activity of the LPS-treated cells. In addition, cell-adhesion and F-actin intensity, but not CCR2 expression, in LPS-treated cells, was significantly reduced by Ly treatment. Taken together, our results suggest that the PI3K/Akt activation state drives migration behavior towards damaged muscle cells.

Evaluation of pancreatic cancer cell migration with multiple parameters in vitro by using an optical real-time cell mobility assay device

Background

Migration of cancer cell correlates with distant metastasis and local invasion, which are good targets for cancer treatment. An optically accessible device “TAXIScan” was developed, which provides considerably more information regarding the cellular dynamics and less quantity of samples than do the existing methods. Here, we report the establishment of a system to analyze the nature of pancreatic cancer cells using TAXIScan and we evaluated lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)-elicited pancreatic cell migration.

Methods

Pancreatic cancer cell lines, BxPC3, PANC-1, AsPC1, and MIAPaCa-2, were analyzed for adhesion as well as migration towards LPA by TAXIScan using parameters such as velocity and directionality or for the number of migrated cells by the Boyden chamber methods. To confirm that the migration was initiated by LPA, the expression of LPA receptors and activation of intracellular signal transductions were examined by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase reaction and western blotting.

Results

Scaffold coating was necessary for the adhesion of pancreatic cancer cells, and collagen I and Matrigel were found to be good scaffolds. BxPC3 and PANC-1 cells clearly migrated towards the concentration gradient formed by injecting 1 μL LPA, which was abrogated by pre-treatment with LPA inhibitor, Ki16425 (IC₅₀ for the directionality ≈ 1.86 μM). The LPA dependent migration was further confirmed by mRNA and protein expression of LPA receptors as well as phosphorylation of signaling molecules. LPA₁ mRNA was highest among the 6 receptors, and LPA₁, LPA₂ and LPA₃ proteins were detected in BxPC3 and PANC-1 cells. Phosphorylation of Akt (Thr308 and Ser473) and p42/44MAPK in BxPC3 and PANC-1 cells was observed after LPA stimulation, which was clearly inhibited by pre-treatment with a compound Ki16425.

Conclusions

We established a novel pancreatic cancer cell migration assay system using TAXIScan. This assay device provides multiple information on migrating cells simultaneously, such as their morphology, directionality, and velocity, with a small volume of sample and can be a powerful tool for analyzing the nature of cancer cells and for identifying new factors that affect cell functions.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-017-3218-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.