Experimental manipulation of a contact guidance system in amphibian gastrulation by mechanical tension

Abstract

Contact guidance^1,2 has been implied in various morphogenetic movements including neural crest cell migration³, primordial germ cell migration⁴ and guidance of axonal growth cone⁵. In urodele gastrulae, we reported⁶ the presence of an aligned network of extracellular fibrils on the inside of the ectodermal layer and suggested that it guides the migration of the presumptive mesodermal cells from the blastopore towards the animal pole. We also reported⁷ in vitro experiments in which the fibril network of the ectodermal layer was transferred onto the surface of a coverslip. Dissociated mesodermal cells attach to and locomote actively on such conditioned surfaces in an oriented fashion along the blastopore–animal pole axis (bp–ap axis) of the ectodermal layer that conditioned the surface. Recent reports^8,18 suggest that these fibrils contain fibronectin. We now report that the fibril network on the conditioned surface can be artificially aligned in any orientation by exerting mechanical tension on the ectodermal layer during the conditioning. Such prepared surfaces cause cell movements aligned along the tension axis, even when the tension axis is perpendicular to the natural axis of alignment along the bp–ap axis. These results suggest that the extracellular matrix fibrils aligned by the mechanical stress that arises in embryos during development can orient cell migration by the contact guidance, in a similar manner to that reported in the collagen gel and fibroblasts system^9,10.