Directional movement is a property common to all cell types during development and is critical to tissue remodelling and regeneration after damage. In migrating cells, calcium has a multifunctional role in directional sensing, cytoskeleton redistribution, traction force generation, and relocation of focal adhesions. Here we visualize high-calcium microdomains ('calcium flickers') and their patterned activation in migrating human embryonic lung fibroblasts. Calcium flicker activity is dually coupled to membrane tension (by means of TRPM7, a stretch-activated Ca(2+)-permeant channel of the transient receptor potential superfamily) and chemoattractant signal transduction (by means of type 2 inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors). Interestingly, calcium flickers are most active at the leading lamella of migrating cells, displaying a 4:1 front-to-rear polarization opposite to the global calcium gradient. When exposed to a platelet-derived growth factor gradient perpendicular to cell movement, asymmetric calcium flicker activity develops across the lamella and promotes the turning of migrating fibroblasts. These findings show how the exquisite spatiotemporal organization of calcium microdomains can orchestrate complex cellular processes such as cell migration.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 January 2023.
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#6,621,593
of 26,017,215 outputs
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#65,831
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Outputs of similar age
#43,256
of 192,123 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature
#338
of 514 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,017,215 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 74th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 99,074 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 102.3. This one is in the 33rd percentile – i.e., 33% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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