Leveraging Cell Migration Dynamics to Discriminate Between Senescent and Presenescent Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

Purpose: The suboptimal clinical performance of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) has raised concerns about their therapeutic potential. One major contributing factor to this issue is the heterogeneous nature of hMSCs. Senescent cell accumulation during stem cell expansion is a key driver of MSC heterogeneity.

3D confinement alters smooth muscle cell responses to chemical and mechanical cues.

Smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotypic switching is a hallmark of many vascular diseases. Although prior work has established that chemical and mechanical cues contribute to SMC phenotypic switching, the impact of three-dimensional (3D) confinement on this process remains elusive. Yet, , arterial SMCs reside within confined environments.

Q&A with Panagiotis Mistriotis.

Panagiotis Mistriotis spoke with Luca Gasparoli about his scientific journey and inspiration to become a scientist and his focus on investigating the mechanisms underlying mechanical regulation of cell migration, stem cell fate decisions, and smooth muscle cell function; in particular, he discussed his lab's recent publication in Cell Reports exploring how spatial confinement influences migrating cells' response to fluid flow.

Confinement controls the directional cell responses to fluid forces.

Our understanding of how fluid forces influence cell migration in confining environments remains limited. By integrating microfluidics with live-cell imaging, we demonstrate that cells in tightly-but not moderately-confined spaces reverse direction and move upstream upon exposure to fluid forces. This fluid force-induced directional change occurs less frequently when cells display diminished mechanosensitivity, experience elevated hydraulic resistance, or sense a chemical gradient.

Cellular interactions in tumor microenvironment during breast cancer progression: new frontiers and implications for novel therapeutics.

The breast cancer tumor microenvironment (TME) is dynamic, with various immune and non-immune cells interacting to regulate tumor progression and anti-tumor immunity. It is now evident that the cells within the TME significantly contribute to breast cancer progression and resistance to various conventional and newly developed anti-tumor therapies. Both immune and non-immune cells in the TME play critical roles in tumor onset, uncontrolled proliferation, metastasis, immune evasion, and resistance to anti-tumor therapies.