State Key Laboratory of Photon-Technology in Western China Energy, Institute of Photonics and Photon-Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China
Wei Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Photon-Technology in Western China Energy, Institute of Photonics and Photon-Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China
Yanan Liu
School of Physics, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China
Dan Sun
State Key Laboratory of Photon-Technology in Western China Energy, Institute of Photonics and Photon-Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China
Guangyin Jing
School of Physics, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China; Corresponding author
Jintao Bai
State Key Laboratory of Photon-Technology in Western China Energy, Institute of Photonics and Photon-Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China
Xiqiao Feng
Institute of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Ce Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Photon-Technology in Western China Energy, Institute of Photonics and Photon-Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China; Corresponding author
Summary: Collective behavior emerges in diverse life machineries, e.g., the immune responses to dynamic stimulations. The essential questions that arise here are that whether and how cells in vivo collectively respond to stimulation frequencies higher than their intrinsic natural values, e.g., the acute inflammation conditions. In this work, we systematically studied morphological and signaling responses of population fibroblasts in an interconnected cell monolayer and uncovered that, besides the natural NF-κB oscillation frequency of 1/90 min−1, collective signaling response emerges in the cell monolayer at 1/20 min−1 TNF-α input periodicity as well. Using a customized microfluidic device, we independently induced dynamic chemical stimulation and cytoskeleton reorganization on the stand-alone cells to exclude the effect of cell-cell communication. Our results reveal that, at this particular frequency, chemical stimulation is translated into dynamic intracellular mechanical cues through RAC1-medicated induction of dynamic cell-cell connections and cytoskeleton reorganizations, which synergize with chemical input to facilitate collective signaling responses.
