Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Stanford University, United States
Extracellular matrices (ECMs) in soft tissues are often nanoporous, requiring T cells to open a path to migrate through. Additionally, ECMs exhibit plasticity, undergoing irreversible deformation under mechanical stress. However, the biophysical mechanisms that drive T cell migration through confined spaces mediated by plasticity remain unknown. Here, using tunable biomaterials for 3D cell culture, it was found not only that matrix plasticity impacts T cell motility but also that flow stress–critical shear stress level leading to material breakdown or flow–emerged as the robust predictor of cell migration.
