Effects of Collagen Density on Cardiac Fibroblast Behavior and Gene Expression

This article talks about the relationship between the ECM stiffness and cell migration. Collagen with different densities have different effects on the migration of these fibroblast. It shows how the tests were done and the results. It shows that the higher ECM stiffness will aggregate the cell to migrate in a faster way than cells in lower concentration of ECM.
In the discussion section, it says that the ECM stiffness actually do have an effect on cells migration, range from stimulatory to permissive and even to inhibitory. Besides, the effects are cell-type specific. The reason for in aggregated migrations of fibroblasts in high ECM stiffness is unclear. However, it was suspected that it is due to the ectivation of integrins, which leads to the enhanced cell migration through a serious of protein activation. These protein activations further alter the gene expression of the cells.
The study is important because it opens a door to the study of cancerous cells. The cancerous cells have two properties which make it difficult to be cured: uncontrolled proliferation and migration. The uncontrolled proliferation of the cancer cells has been related to the matrix stiffness, which is the stiffness of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the cells. The higher matrix stiffness has caused the cells to multiply at abnormally high rates. These cancer cells are generally less adhesive than normal cells. However, this study shows that not only cell proliferation is affected by the ECM stiffness, but also the cell migration. If we can understand why the ECM stiffness can affect the cell migration, then an effective method can be figured out to control the matastasis of the cancerous cells.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com.ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/cgi-bin/fulltext/104533600/PDFSTART