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In order to reach their target, for instance a tumor, immune cells have to leave the bloodstream or lymphatic vessels and migrate through connective tissue. Until now, scientists presumed that immune cells migrated through tissue by constantly changing their shape and therefore squeezing through the smallest pores and openings.

Using a new measuring method, researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now been able to determine that immune cells also exert traction on surrounding tissue in order to pull themselves through particularly tight pores. Their results were published in the journal Nature Physics.

In order to migrate from A to B, immune cells do more than just adjust their shape. Occasionally, they attach to their surroundings and exert forces on these surroundings in order to pull themselves forward.

"These contractile phases help immune cells to move through particularly tight pores," explains Prof. Dr. Ben Fabry, holder of the FAU Chair of Biophysics and co-author of the study titled "Dynamic traction force measurements of migrating immune cells in 3D biopolymer matrices."

"Immune cells are much quicker and considerably smaller than most other cells in connective tissue. For this reason, we have so far failed to measure such traction forces in immune cells. Our discovery was made possible only thanks to new, considerably quicker and more sensitive methods that we have developed and continually improved over recent years in Erlangen."

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