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. 2016 Mar 23;2016(1):110-6.
doi: 10.1093/emph/eow010. Print 2016.

Human fibroblasts display a differential focal adhesion phenotype relative to chimpanzee

Alexander S Advani  1 , Annie Y Chen  1 , Courtney C Babbitt  2
Affiliations

Human fibroblasts display a differential focal adhesion phenotype relative to chimpanzee

Alexander S Advani et al. Evol Med Public Health. .

Abstract

There are a number of documented differences between humans and our closest relatives in responses to wound healing and in disease susceptibilities, suggesting a differential cellular response to certain environmental factors. In this study, we sought to look at a specific cell type, fibroblasts, to examine differences in cellular adhesion between humans and chimpanzees in visualized cells and in gene expression. We have found significant differences in the number of focal adhesions between primary human and chimpanzee fibroblasts. Additionally, we see that adhesion related gene ontology categories are some of the most differentially expressed between human and chimpanzee in normal fibroblast cells. These results suggest that human and chimpanzee fibroblasts may have somewhat different adhesive properties, which could play a role in differential disease phenotypes and responses to external factors.

Keywords: cancer; fibroblast; focal adhesion; human evolution.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Example images of the stained human and chimpanzee fibroblast cells. Nuclei (blue), actin (red), and vinculin, a label for focal adhesions (green), are merged in these images, with 20 μm for the scale bar
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Box plot of the differences in the ratio of focal adhesion to total cell size (measured by actin staining). The human ratio is in blue and the chimpanzee in red
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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