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Image by Louis Heiser
and Robert Ackland
Research published in Cell Reports has provided new insight into cellular movement during angiogenesis.
Blood vessel growth was previously thought to occur in the direction of the vessel tip, stretching in a manner that left the lead cells behind.
However, recent studies have suggested that both tip cells and trailing cells move at different speeds and in different directions, changing positions to extend the blood vessel into the surrounding matrix.
With the current study, researchers wanted to determine how to gain control of the complex cellular motion involved in angiogenesis. They approached the problem using a combination of biology, mathematical models, and computer simulations.
“We watched the movement of the vascular endothelial cells in real time, created a mathematical model of the movement, and then performed simulations on a computer,” said Koichi Nishiyama, MD, PhD, of Kumamoto University in Japan.
“We found that we could reproduce blood vessel growth and the motion of the entire cellular structure by using only very simple cell-autonomous mechanisms. The mechanisms, such as speed and direction of movement, of every single cell change stochastically. It’s really interesting.”
Dr Nishiyama and his colleagues attempted to increase the accuracy of their simulation by adding a new rule to the mathematical model. This rule reduced the movement of cells at the tip of the blood vessel as the distance between tip cells and subsequent cells increased.
The researchers also conducted an experiment using actual cells to confirm whether the predicted cellular movement of the simulation was a feasible biological phenomenon.
They performed an operation to widen the distance between the tip cells and subsequent cells using a laser. The results showed that the forward movement of the tip cells was stopped in the same manner predicted by the simulations.
“We found that complex cell motility, such as that seen during blood vessel growth, is a process in which coexisting cells successfully control themselves spontaneously and move in a coordinated manner through the influence of adjacent cells,” Dr Nishiyama said.
“The ability to directly control this phenomenon was made apparent in our study. These results will add to the understanding of the formation of not only blood vessels but also various tissues and the fundamental mechanisms of the origins of the organism.” 
Image by Louis Heiser
and Robert Ackland
Research published in Cell Reports has provided new insight into cellular movement during angiogenesis.
Blood vessel growth was previously thought to occur in the direction of the vessel tip, stretching in a manner that left the lead cells behind.
However, recent studies have suggested that both tip cells and trailing cells move at different speeds and in different directions, changing positions to extend the blood vessel into the surrounding matrix.
With the current study, researchers wanted to determine how to gain control of the complex cellular motion involved in angiogenesis. They approached the problem using a combination of biology, mathematical models, and computer simulations.
“We watched the movement of the vascular endothelial cells in real time, created a mathematical model of the movement, and then performed simulations on a computer,” said Koichi Nishiyama, MD, PhD, of Kumamoto University in Japan.
“We found that we could reproduce blood vessel growth and the motion of the entire cellular structure by using only very simple cell-autonomous mechanisms. The mechanisms, such as speed and direction of movement, of every single cell change stochastically. It’s really interesting.”
Dr Nishiyama and his colleagues attempted to increase the accuracy of their simulation by adding a new rule to the mathematical model. This rule reduced the movement of cells at the tip of the blood vessel as the distance between tip cells and subsequent cells increased.
The researchers also conducted an experiment using actual cells to confirm whether the predicted cellular movement of the simulation was a feasible biological phenomenon.
They performed an operation to widen the distance between the tip cells and subsequent cells using a laser. The results showed that the forward movement of the tip cells was stopped in the same manner predicted by the simulations.
“We found that complex cell motility, such as that seen during blood vessel growth, is a process in which coexisting cells successfully control themselves spontaneously and move in a coordinated manner through the influence of adjacent cells,” Dr Nishiyama said.
“The ability to directly control this phenomenon was made apparent in our study. These results will add to the understanding of the formation of not only blood vessels but also various tissues and the fundamental mechanisms of the origins of the organism.”
Image by Louis Heiser
and Robert Ackland
Research published in Cell Reports has provided new insight into cellular movement during angiogenesis.
Blood vessel growth was previously thought to occur in the direction of the vessel tip, stretching in a manner that left the lead cells behind.
However, recent studies have suggested that both tip cells and trailing cells move at different speeds and in different directions, changing positions to extend the blood vessel into the surrounding matrix.
With the current study, researchers wanted to determine how to gain control of the complex cellular motion involved in angiogenesis. They approached the problem using a combination of biology, mathematical models, and computer simulations.
“We watched the movement of the vascular endothelial cells in real time, created a mathematical model of the movement, and then performed simulations on a computer,” said Koichi Nishiyama, MD, PhD, of Kumamoto University in Japan.
“We found that we could reproduce blood vessel growth and the motion of the entire cellular structure by using only very simple cell-autonomous mechanisms. The mechanisms, such as speed and direction of movement, of every single cell change stochastically. It’s really interesting.”
Dr Nishiyama and his colleagues attempted to increase the accuracy of their simulation by adding a new rule to the mathematical model. This rule reduced the movement of cells at the tip of the blood vessel as the distance between tip cells and subsequent cells increased.
The researchers also conducted an experiment using actual cells to confirm whether the predicted cellular movement of the simulation was a feasible biological phenomenon.
They performed an operation to widen the distance between the tip cells and subsequent cells using a laser. The results showed that the forward movement of the tip cells was stopped in the same manner predicted by the simulations.
“We found that complex cell motility, such as that seen during blood vessel growth, is a process in which coexisting cells successfully control themselves spontaneously and move in a coordinated manner through the influence of adjacent cells,” Dr Nishiyama said.
“The ability to directly control this phenomenon was made apparent in our study. These results will add to the understanding of the formation of not only blood vessels but also various tissues and the fundamental mechanisms of the origins of the organism.”