Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Tyrosine Kinase-Mediated Axial Motility Of Basal Cells Revealed By Intravital Imaging, Jeremy Roy, Bongki Kim, Eric Hill, Pablo Visconti, Dario Krapf, Claudio Vinegoni, Ralph Weissleder, Dennis Brown, Sylvie Breton

Veterinary & Animal Sciences Department Faculty Publication Series

Epithelial cells are generally considered to be static relative to their neighbours. Basal cells in pseudostratified epithelia display a single long cytoplasmic process that can cross the tight junction barrier to reach the lumen. Using in vivo microscopy to visualize the epididymis, a model system for the study of pseudostratified epithelia, we report here the surprising discovery that these basal cell projections—which we call axiopodia—periodically extend and retract over time. We found that axiopodia extensions and retractions follow an oscillatory pattern. This movement, which we refer to as periodic axial motility (PAM), is controlled by c-Src and MEK1/2–ERK1/2. Therapeutic inhibition …