Abstract
Static mechanical compression is a biomechanical factor that affects the progression of melanoma cells. However, little is known about how dynamic mechanical compression affects the progression of melanoma cells. In the present study, we show that mechanical intermittent compression affects the progression rate of malignant melanoma cells in a cycle period-dependent manner. Our results suggest that intermittent compression with a cycle of 2 h on/2 h off could suppress the progression rate of melanoma cells by suppressing the elongation of F-actin filaments and mRNA expression levels related to collagen degradation. In contrast, intermittent compression with a cycle of 4 h on/4 h off could promote the progression rate of melanoma cells by promoting cell proliferation and mRNA expression levels related to collagen degradation. Mechanical intermittent compression could therefore affect the progression rate of malignant melanoma cells in a cycle period-dependent manner. Our results contribute to a deeper understanding of the physiological responses of melanoma cells to dynamic mechanical compression.
Highlights
Prior to observing the progression of melanoma cells in the cell culture device, we evaluated the deformation of collagen gel during applying mechanical compression; the creep phenomenon of the gel
matrix metalloproteinase-14 (Mmp-14), which promotes collagen degradation, correlates with the invasive ability of melanoma cells in collagen gel [35]. These findings suggest that intermittent compression with a cycle of 2 h on/2 h off reduced the progression rate by decreasing the cell migration capacity and invasive ability of melanoma cells through the inhibition of F-actin elongation and collagen degradation, respectively
We established an in vitro cell culture model using melanoma cells to simulate the physiological conditions of malignant melanoma, and a cell culture device to apply intermittent mechanical compression with temporal observation
Summary
Academic Editor: Yasuhiro SakaiReceived: 18 May 2021Accepted: 16 June 2021Published: 18 June 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).Malignant melanoma is a melanocyte-derived cutaneous skin tumor, which is known as one of the most aggressive cancers and intractable disease with a poor prognosis [1]. The incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing worldwide [2,3,4], but there are few effective pathological diagnostic techniques to find melanoma [5]. Although a classical “ABCDE”
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