Embryonic cell-cell adhesion: a key player in collective neural crest migration.
Cell migration is essential for morphogenesis, adult tissue remodeling, wound healing, and cancer cell migration. Cells can migrate as individuals or groups. When cells migrate in groups, cell-cell interactions are crucial in order to promote the coordinated behavior, essential for collective migration. Interestingly, recent evidence has shown that cell-cell interactions are also important for establishing and maintaining the directionality of these migratory events. We focus on neural crest cells, as they possess extraordinary migratory capabilities that allow them to migrate and colonize tissues all over the embryo. Neural crest cells undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition at the same time than perform directional collective migration. Cell-cell adhesion has been shown to be an important source of planar cell polarity and cell coordination during collective movement. We also review molecular mechanisms underlying cadherin turnover, showing how the modulation and dynamics of cell-cell adhesions are crucial in order to maintain tissue integrity and collective migration in vivo. We conclude that cell-cell adhesion during embryo development cannot be considered as simple passive resistance to force, but rather participates in signaling events that determine important cell behaviors required for cell migration.
['Barriga|Elias H|EH|', 'Mayor|Roberto|R|']
D000818:Animals D015820:Cadherins D002448:Cell Adhesion D002450:Cell Communication D002465:Cell Movement D047108:Embryonic Development D006801:Humans D009420:Nervous System D009432:Neural Crest D015398:Signal Transduction
Neural crest Cell migration Cell polarity Cadherin Cell–cell adhesion