As cells migrate - during processes such as development and wound healing - they transmit forces from their leading edge, creating a stress wave that propagates through the mass of expanding tissue. Xavier Trepat at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, and his colleagues measured the inter- and intracellular mechanical forces in a monolayer of canine epithelial cells as the cells spread out on a substrate. As the leading front commenced migration, forces were generated that were transmitted backward from cell to cell through intercellular junctions as the cells moved forward.
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