Cellular Migration May Exhibit Intrinsic Left-Right Asymmetries: A meta-analysis

Abstract

The intracellular model of embryonic left-right (LR) asymmetry proposes that body laterality originates from intrinsic chiral properties of individual cells, and several recent studies identified consistent chirality in the behavior of cells in vitro. Here, we explored one prediction of the intrinsic asymmetry model: that LR asymmetries would be present in a wide range of mammalian cells, manifesting in the form of LR-biased migration toward an attractant. We mined data from published papers on galvanotaxis and chemotaxis and quantitatively analyzed the migration trajectories of adult somatic cells, stem cells, and cancer cells to determine whether they display significant consistent LR biases in their movements toward migration targets. We found that several cell types exhibited LR biases during galvanotaxis and chemotaxis, and that treatments inhibiting cytoskeletal remodeling or targeting ion channel activity both abolished these LR biases. While we cannot conclusively rule out the existence of subtle biasing cues in the apparatus of some of the studies, the analysis of this dataset suggests specific assays and cell types for further investigation into the chiral aspects of intrinsic cell behavior.\n\nFundingThis work was funded by the American Heart Association Established Investigator grant 0740088N and NIH grants R01-GM077425 (to ML) and NRSA grant 1F32GM087107 (to LNV). M.L. is also supported by the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation.