Cells on the Move: How Different Cell Types Navigate Together

What is it about?

Cells need to move in a coordinated way during crucial processes like tissue development, immune response, and cancer spread. Often, this is thought to rely on pre-existing “maps” in tissues — fixed chemical or mechanical cues that guide cells in a particular direction. But our study shows another possibility: cells can shape their own path as they go and even guide other cells. In particular, we found that different cell types can play complementary roles: Some act as “sensors” that detect and follow signals, while others act as “consumers” that shape those signals by using them up. We developed a theoretical framework to capture this interaction and tested it with experiments on immune cells. Strikingly, dendritic cells (DCs) both consume and sense the gradients they create, while T cells behave as sensors, together creating coupled migration patterns that closely match our model’s predictions. This explains how DCs and T cells can “surf” the same self-generated gradients and move efficiently together toward their targets.

Featured Image

Photo by Marco Kaufmann on Unsplash

Photo by Marco Kaufmann on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Cells rarely act alone. From healing to fighting infections, they move in mixed groups. Our work shows that self-generated gradients give these diverse cells a simple, robust way to migrate together — a principle that helps explain immune responses and other complex processes.

Perspectives