2D And 3D?

There Are Many Ways To Study How Cells Migrate In The Laboratory. A Typical Migration Experiment Is As Follows: You Have Your Cells, And You Paint A Layer Of Matrix Protein On The Surface Where You Want The Cells To Migrate. This Protein Is Required For Cell Adhesion, And You Seed Your Cells On It. So The Surface You Usually Choose Is A Petri Dish, And The Plane Is Like A TV. Your Cells Are Very Good. They Are Happy To Be There. They Also Migrate Well To This Matrix. Fibronectin Is A Matrix Protein That Exists In Many Parts Of The Body, Such As Wound Closure Or Blood Clots. Many Cells Can Adhere To Fibronectin Through Its Receptor Molecules (called Integrins) On The Surface. When A Wound Occurs In A Certain Part Of The Body, The Cells Show That They Are Also Very Flat, But They Migrate Very Fast, Almost Like Sliding On The Surface. This Type Of Experiment Is Very Useful For Us To Understand The Most Basic Characteristics Of Cell Migration, Such As Morphology, Their Speed Of Movement, And Where They Move. Some Cells In Our Body Will Also Undergo This 2D Migration. For Example, Those Epithelial Cells Migrate To The Wound Surface To Seal The Wound. Although They Are Not Identical, They Are Close Enough. When We Stain These 2D Cells With Different Antibodies And Fluorescent Molecules (called Immunofluorescence) To Observe The Situation Inside And Outside The Cells, We Get The Following Image: Beautiful, Right? The Round Structure Is The Nucleus. The Light Yellow Edge Is Our Favorite Protein Arp2/3. The Magenta Is The Integrin Molecule I Mentioned Earlier, Which Helps Cells Adhere To The Surface And Move Around& Nbsp; It Is True That In Our Body, Most Cells Do Not Look So Flat! They Are More Likely To Revolve Around The Matrix From The Top, Bottom, Sides Or 3D Angles. Therefore, These Cells Will Not Glide Like This, But Will Rotate Around A Lot Of Things. Because There Are Too Many Things On The Road Now, And Many Crossed Matrices Are No Longer As Open Spaces As Planar 2D Surfaces. Your Macrophages (immune Cells Involved In Phagocytosis Of Bacteria And Dead Cells) Need To Swing In The Matrix Maze Below Your Skin To Reach The Wound To Protect Your Body. Or In Pathological Processes Such As Metastasis, Cancer Cells Must Actually Do The Same To Invade The Surrounding Or Enter The Blood And Transfer To A Distant Organ Of Your Body. So, If We Can See The Appearance Of These Cells In 3D, We Will Find Out How They Move In Such A Complex Environment And How They Interact With The Surrounding Environment. Maybe We Can Interfere With Cancer And Other Harmful Substances, And Help Your Immune Cells To Wait Well, Which Is Very Helpful. Of Course, Learning 3D Is More Complicated Than 2D, And It May Not Be Convenient To Use It. But In The Lab, We Have Different Techniques To Help Us More Easily Access These 3D Processes. One Way Is To Make A 3D Substrate! Thus, When A Wound Heals, A Cell Migrates And Deposits A Matrix To Seal The Wound Known As Fibroblasts. We Can Grow Fibroblasts, Let Them Make Matrix, And Then Kill Them, But Keep The Matrix Intact, Which We Call Cell Derived Matrix Or CDM. The Thickness Of The Matrix Is Enough To Cover Cells In All Directions, And Can Re-represent The 3D Environment. But At The Same Time, This Matrix Is Not Too Thick, Which Still Allows Us To Easily Study The Cells In It. The Cells In 3D Have Many Spikes, Or Protrusions. We Believe That These Protrusions Can Help Them Move Like Small Feet, And Also Help Them Feel Around Like Small Hands. We Call Them Filopodia. "filo" Refers To Line And "podia" Refers To Foot. The Cells Here Will Also Glow In The Dark, Which Is Called Fluorescence, Because We Will Add Some Fluorescent Labeled Proteins To The Cells In Order To Capture The Cell Image. Isn't It Beautiful? Not Every Cell Has So Many Protrusions, But This Is A Cancer Cell, A Very Arrogant Migration Cell, So They Have Many Such Feet To Help Them Move Better. This 3D Appearance Allows Scientists To Better And More Closely Observe How Cells Look In A More Natural Environment, And Then We Can Study The Impact Of The Environment On Them. 2D And 3D. Both Have Their Own Advantages And Disadvantages, But The Diversity Of Cells Displayed From Different Angles Allows Scientists To More And More Fully Understand Their Structures And Characteristics.