Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The Journal of Cell Biology logoLink to The Journal of Cell Biology
. 1981 Nov 1;91(2):528–536. doi: 10.1083/jcb.91.2.528

Motion of particles adhering to the leading lamella of crawling cells

PMCID: PMC2111979  PMID: 7309794

Abstract

Time-lapsed films of particle motion on the leading lamella of chick heart fibroblasts and mouse peritoneal macrophages were analyzed. The particles were composed of powdered glass or powdered aminated polystyrene and were 0.5-1.0 micrometer in radius. Particle motions were described by steps in position from one frame to the time-lapse movies to the next. The statistics of the step-size distribution of the particles were consistent with a particle in Brownian motion subject to a constant force. From the Brownian movement, we have calculated the two-dimensional diffusion coefficient of different particles. These vary by more than an order of magnitude (10(-11)-10(-10) cm2/s) even for particles composed of the same material and located very close to each other on the surface of the cell. This variation was not correlated with particle size but is interpretable as a result of different numbers of adhesive bonds holding the particles to the cells. The constant component of particle movement can be interpreted as a result of a constant force acting on each particle (0.1-1.0 x 10(-8) dyn). Variations in the fractional coefficient for particles close to each other on the cell surface do not yield corresponding differences in velocity, suggesting that the frictional coefficient and the driving force vary together. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the particles are carried by flow of the membrane as a whole or by flow of some submembrane material. The utility of our methods for monitoring cell motile behavior in biologically interesting situations, such as a chemotactic gradient, is discussed.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (898.4 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Abercrombie M., Heaysman J. E., Pegrum S. M. The locomotion of fibroblasts in culture. 3. Movements of particles on the dorsal surface of the leading lamella. Exp Cell Res. 1970 Oct;62(2):389–398. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(70)90570-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bell G. I. Models for the specific adhesion of cells to cells. Science. 1978 May 12;200(4342):618–627. doi: 10.1126/science.347575. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bray D. Surface movements during the growth of single explanted neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1970 Apr;65(4):905–910. doi: 10.1073/pnas.65.4.905. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cherry R. J. Rotational and lateral diffusion of membrane proteins. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1979 Dec 20;559(4):289–327. doi: 10.1016/0304-4157(79)90009-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dembo M., Tuckerman L., Goad W. Motion of polymorphonuclear leukocytes: theory of receptor redistribution and the frictional force on a moving cell. Cell Motil. 1981;1(2):205–235. doi: 10.1002/cm.970010205. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. DiPasquale A., Bell P. B., Jr The upper cell surface: its inability to support active cell movement in culture. J Cell Biol. 1974 Jul;62(1):198–214. doi: 10.1083/jcb.62.1.198. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Dipasquale A. Locomotory activity of epithelial cells in culture. Exp Cell Res. 1975 Aug;94(1):191–215. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(75)90545-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Flanagan M. T. More light on membrane protein mobility. Nature. 1980 Mar 13;284(5752):126–126. doi: 10.1038/284126a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Harris A. K. Cell surface movements related to cell locomotion. Ciba Found Symp. 1973;14:3–26. doi: 10.1002/9780470719978.ch2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Harris A. K., Wild P., Stopak D. Silicone rubber substrata: a new wrinkle in the study of cell locomotion. Science. 1980 Apr 11;208(4440):177–179. doi: 10.1126/science.6987736. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Harris A., Dunn G. Centripetal transport of attached particles on both surfaces of moving fibroblasts. Exp Cell Res. 1972 Aug;73(2):519–523. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(72)90084-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hochmuth R. M., Mohandas N., Blackshear P. L., Jr Measurement of the elastic modulus for red cell membrane using a fluid mechanical technique. Biophys J. 1973 Aug;13(8):747–762. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(73)86021-7. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ingram V. M. A side view of moving fibroblasts. Nature. 1969 May 17;222(5194):641–644. doi: 10.1038/222641a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Middleton C. A. Cell-surface labelling reveals no evidence for membrane assembly and disassembly during fibroblast locomotion. Nature. 1979 Nov 8;282(5735):203–205. doi: 10.1038/282203a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Saffman P. G., Delbrück M. Brownian motion in biological membranes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Aug;72(8):3111–3113. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.8.3111. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Vasiliev J. M., Gelfand I. M., Dominina L. V., Dorfman N. A., Pletyushkina O. Y. Active cell edge and movements of concanavalin A receptors of the surface of epithelial and fibroblastic cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Nov;73(11):4085–4089. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.11.4085. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Cell Biology are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES