Effect Of Shear Stress On Migration And Adhesion Of Trophoblastic Tumor Cells

During the processes of placenta development, trophoblast cells enter endometrium firstly, then invade the endometrial capillaries, migrate within the uterine vasculature, and eventually reside within the spiral arteries of the uterus. After that, those intravascular trophoblast cells remodel the spiral arteries. The invasion processes indicate that once within the uterine blood vessels, the migration of the trophoblast cells is against the stream of the blood flow. The adhesion and invasion of trophoblast cells are essential in the processes of the placenta development. Their invasive behavior is regulated spatially and temporally. It is crucial for the successful establishment of pregnancy.Placental site trophoblastic tumor (PSTT) is a dangerous gynecologic disease, to start with the over invasion of trophoblast cells on endometrium and uterine vasculature. The process of invasion and metastasis is regulated by many factors, for example, the expression of cell factors and adhesion molecules. Furthermore, blood flow induced shear stress also regulates the adhesion and identification of cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix. To examine the effects of shear stress on adhesion and migration of trophoblastic tumor cells is helpful not only in getting a better understanding of trophoblast cells invasion processes and the mechanisms underlying, clarifying the effect of blood flow shear stress on pregnancy, but also in explaining the metastasis of tumor cells. Tumor is the first killer of human health. Metastasis, the spread and growth of tumors at secondary sites, is an extremely important clinical event, since the majority of cancer mortality is associated with the metastatic tumors rather than the primary ones. Clinical and experimental results indicate that the blood vasculature and the lymphatic vasculature are the most common approaches of tumor metastasis. In both of them, the tumor cells are in a fluid-flow environment and subjected to the flow-induce shear stress. Therefore, carrying out researches on tumor cells metastasis in the aspects of biorheology would be meaningful to better explain the mechanism of tumor metastasis.Previous studies show that shear stress regulates trophoblast motility in vitro. Trophoblast cell migration velocity and displacement are correlated with the magnitude and the duration of the applied shear stress. But these results were derived based on the observation of single cells subjected to flow. Cells, as the basic units of tissue, do not...