Cell Responsiveness to Physical Energies: Paving the Way to Decipher a Morphogenetic Code

Abstract

We discuss emerging views on the complexity of signals controlling the onset of biological shapes and functions, from the nanoarchitectonics arising from supramolecular interactions, to the cellular/multicellular tissue level, and up to the unfolding of complex anatomy. We highlight the fundamental role of physical forces in cellular decisions, stressing the intriguing similarities in early morphogenesis, tissue regeneration, and oncogenic drift. Compelling evidence is presented, showing that biological patterns are strongly embedded in the vibrational nature of the physical energies that permeate the entire universe. We describe biological dynamics as informational processes at which physics and chemistry converge, with nanomechanical motions, and electromagnetic waves, including light, forming an ensemble of vibrations, acting as a sort of control software for molecular patterning. Biomolecular recognition is approached within the establishment of coherent synchronizations among signaling players, whose physical nature can be equated to oscillators tending to the coherent synchronization of their vibrational modes. Cytoskeletal elements are now emerging as senders and receivers of physical signals, "shaping" biological identity from the cellular to the tissue/organ levels. We finally discuss the perspective of exploiting the diffusive features of physical energies to afford in situ stem/somatic cell reprogramming, and tissue regeneration, without stem cell transplantation.

Keywords: cancer; electric fields; electromagnetic radiation; mechanical vibration; microtubuli; morphogenesis; morphogenetic code; physical energies; regeneration; stem cells.

Figure 1

(Left panel): time lapse acquisition of cell movement during 3 min. (Right panel): directionality map showing vectors, represented as angle and module, of cellular movement of the same frames. The intensity of the movement and the distance covered during a 0.05-Hz acquisition together imply an actin and tubulin turnover rate with higher orders of magnitude of frequencies because of the dimensions of the single monomers that compose the mesh of the cytoskeleton. The microphotographs show a 60× phase contrast acquisition of dermal fibroblast cells.

Figure 2

(Upper panel): acetylated (red) and polyglutamylated (green) tubulin of control (left) and stretched (right) cardiac fibroblast cells. (Lower panel): detyrosinated (red) and tyrosinated (green) tubulin of control (left) and stretched (right) cardiac fibroblast cells. The rearrangement of the tubulin mesh caused by a mechanical strain not only influences the shape and morphology of the cells but requires an incredible number of finely tuned modifications of the single units that compose the microtubuli in a matter of minutes, all shared and synched by each of the cells that compose the tissue. The microphotographs show a 20× fluorescence acquisition of cardiac fibroblast cells.