Journal: Scientific Reports
Article Title: Epithelial layer unjamming shifts energy metabolism toward glycolysis
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-74992-z
Figure Lengend Snippet: Glucose uptake per cell increases everywhere while mitochondrial membrane potential increases only near the advancing edge. To investigate the extent to which cells within the layer shift toward glycolysis, we employ the glucose uptake assay by imaging the epithelial cell layer after incubation with 2-NBDG, a fluorescent non-catabolizable glucose analog that accumulates within cells after uptake. ( a ) Representative fluorescence images of the 2-NBDG signal are shown at timepoints prior to barrier lifting and at 4 h and 24 h after barrier lifting. Cells confined by the PDMS barrier have a uniform and low 2-NBDG intensity throughout the layer. The PDMS barrier appears bright in the image as 2-NBDG tends to non-specifically adhere to the cut PDMS edge. At 4 h and 24 h after barrier lifting, the 2-NBDG intensity progressively increases in the jammed interior of the cell layer and remains low at the advancing edge. ( b ) We normalize the 2-NBDG fluorescence intensity of all three timepoints relative to the 2-NBDG intensity at the center of the confined cell layer of the pre-barrier lift condition (inset). Additionally, the average 2-NDBG fluorescence intensity across the cell layer is normalized by the average cell area measurements from tessellations of the Peredox cell nucleus positions. This reveals that on a per-cell basis, prior to barrier lifting, the 2-NBDG intensity is uniform and low. At timepoints after barrier lifting, 2-NDBG uptake per cell, relative to the confined layer, becomes progressively elevated. The 2-NBDG intensity is dramatically increased near the advancing front. To investigate the mitochondrial membrane potential in cells throughout the epithelial cell layer, we use TMRE, a membrane potential dependent dye, imaged on a fluorescence microscope. ( c ) Representative fluorescence images of the TMRE intensity are shown at timepoints prior to barrier lifting and at 4 h and 24 h after barrier lifting. Prior to barrier lifting, TMRE fluorescence intensity across the layer remains low and uniform. At 4 h after barrier lifting, the TMRE signal remains low in the jammed bulk but becomes more intense near the migrating edge. After 24 h, the TMRE signal remains elevated only in the cells at and immediately behind the leading edge. ( d ) Composite traces of the TMRE image intensity for data prior to barrier lift and at 4 h and 24 h after barrier lift. TMRE intensity is observed to increase after barrier lift near the leading edge indicating an increased mitochondrial membrane potential in migrating cells, but remains low everywhere else. Cell layers treated with FCCP show a significant reduction in TMRE signal, indicating a drop in mitochondrial membrane potential as expected. Interestingly, the drop in the TMRE signal in the confined and jammed layer is significantly larger than the drop in the migrating cell layers. Figure generated with MATLAB R2017b, https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html .
Article Snippet: Cell morphology is derived using built-in MATLAB region-property functions of a Voronoi tessellation generated from the nuclei centroid positions.
Techniques: Membrane, Imaging, Incubation, Fluorescence, Microscopy, Generated