Metamorphosis of mesothelial cells with active horizontal motility in tissue culture.
Mesothelial cells, which have diverse roles in physiology and pathology, constitute the mesothelium along with connective tissue and the basement membrane; the mesothelium serves to shield the somatic cavities. After mesothelial injury, mesothelial cells undergo tissue recovery. However, the mechanism of mesothelial regeneration remains poorly understood. In this study, we used confocal time-lapse microscopy to demonstrate that transformed mesothelial cells (MeT5A) and mouse peritoneal mesothelial cells can randomly migrate between cells in cell culture and in ex vivo tissue culture, respectively. Moreover, peritoneal mesothelial cells changed their morphology from a flattened shape to a cuboidal one prior to the migration. Conversely, MDCKII epithelial cells forming tight cell-cell contacts with one another do not alter the arrangement of adjacent cells during movement. Our evidence complements the current hypotheses of mesothelial regeneration and suggests that certain types of differentiated mesothelial cells undergo morphological changes before initiating migration to repair injured sites.
Department of Pathology and Biological Responses, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, 466-8550, Japan.
Hirotaka
H
Nagai
Shan Hwu
SH
Chew
Yasumasa
Y
Okazaki
Satomi
S
Funahashi
Takashi
T
Namba
Takuya
T
Kato
Atsushi
A
Enomoto
Li
L
Jiang
Shinya
S
Akatsuka
Shinya
S
Toyokuni
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D015687:Cell Hypoxia; D002460:Cell Line; D002465:Cell Movement; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051379:Mice; D057688:Transcellular Cell Migration