hi everyone,
i hope to get some expert advise/opinion on this matter. Im a phd student tasked to come up with my own project and i have been reading a lot of papers. I am interested to know how mechanical stretching of cancer cells cause changes in gene expression (RNA-seq) and study if stretching is enhancing or suppressing tumors.
When i read papers, most of it states that tumor cells are exposed to compression(squeezing) stress rather than stretching kind of stress. EXCEPT for one paper that suggest cells in tumor periphery actually undergo stretching.
''A schematic of the profile of solid stress in tumors and the resulting deformation of the tissue is shown in Fig. 5A. In the interior, the tumor is compressed, which could collapse blood vessels (14), while at the interface with the normal tissue the tumor is compressed in the radial direction and stretched in the circumferential. '' - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23633490
First and foremost, i would like to double check if indeed i have interpreted this correctly. Second, if this is correct, how do i design my experimental procedures. I only have an apparatus that stretches the substrate surface and in doing so also stretches the cells attached to the substrate. If there are no papers detailing the units/extent of stretching force these cells at periphery is exposed to, how do i gauge how much stretch to input on these cells.? i am worried i might get criticized during my thesis defence 4 years down the road.
Stretching might be a very difficult question to address as a PhD project. Stretching is more about muscle cells, not cancer. I suggest to read about filopodia formation and consider a project about metastasis and the role of filopodia in cancer cells ( which cancer is more of your interest)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311356616_L-type_calcium_channels_regulate_filopodia_stability_and_cancer_cell_invasion_downstream_of_integrin_signalling
Article L-type calcium channels regulate filopodia stability and can...
YAP/TAZ as sensors and mediators of mechanical cues instructed by the cellular micro-environment are a good point to start.
Maybe you can have a look at this fantastic paper using a similar experimental design:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867413009513
and this review:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014482715301397
and for the direct connection to cancer you can have a look at:
http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/pdf/S1535-6108(16)30210-0.pdf
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