细胞趋硬性迁移的研究进展

细胞力学微环境可以调控许多细胞生理功能.特别地，在细胞力学微环境各种信号梯度的作用下，细胞可以定向地迁移.这些定向迁移可以显著影响伤口愈合、癌细胞转移和组织形貌发育等生理过程.目前为止，细胞的定向迁移主要包括:在化学药物梯度作用下的趋药性迁移，在黏附分子梯度作用下的趋触性迁移，以及在细胞外基质硬度梯度作用下的趋硬性迁移等.虽然细胞趋药性和趋触性迁移的力学机理得到了很好的研究，但是关于细胞趋硬性迁移的机制和作用还不清楚.该文重点介绍了细胞趋硬性的相关实验和理论研究进展，分析了不同研究间的联系与区别，讨论了细胞趋硬性迁移的潜在力学机制，提出尚存在的问题和未来可能的研究方向.

Research Advances in Cell Durotaxis

The cellular mechanical microenvironment can regulate many cellular physiological functions. In particular, cells can migrate directionally under external cue gradients from their mechanical microenvironment. These directed migrations play critical roles in wound healing, cancer cell metastasis, and tissue morphology development. So far, directional cell migration mostly includes: the directional migration under chemical gradients (chemotaxis), the directional migration under adhesion gradients (haptotaxis), and the directional migration under mechanical gradients (durotaxis). Although the basic mechanisms of chemotaxis and haptotaxis are well characterized, the mechanism of durotaxis remains unclear. In this review, we describe the experimental and theoretical advances in the study of cell durotaxis, analyze the connections and differences among different studies, discuss the potential mechanical mechanism of cell durotaxis, and put forward the remaining problems and possible future research directions.