Figure 4.

How migration speed and evasion probability depend on cellular biophysics. (a) The migration velocity and evasion probability versus cell-ECM adhesion is shown. We find that decreasing the cell-ECM adhesion (ζ) leads to an increase in migration speed (blue line) and evasion probability (red line). This result agrees with findings that primary tumor cells lacking α₂β₁ integrin migrate at faster speeds than wild-type cells (black line is normalized data from (43)). The evasion probability is defined as the percent of simulations where the mutated cells escape the initial circular zone within 50 h. (b) Migration velocity (blue) and evasion probability (red) shows a maximum as a function of cell-cell adhesion strength η. The increase in migration speed as a function of adhesion at low values of η, is consistent with experiments using promotor methylation of E-cadherin (black line shows data from (47)). (c) The tumor model predicts that migration velocity (blue) is roughly independent of the dipole stress, but that increases in dipole stress increase the evasion probability (red). (d) Migration velocity (blue) and evasion probability increase with the protrusive force. To see this figure in color, go online.