durotaxis

In cellular biology, durotaxis is a form of cell migration in which cells are guided by rigidity gradients, which arise from differential structural properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Most normal cells migrate up rigidity gradients (in the direction of greater stiffness).

== History of durotaxis research == The process of durotaxis requires a cell to actively sense the environment, process the mechanical stimulus, and execute a response. Originally, this was believed to be an emergent metazoan property, as the phenomenon requires a complex sensory loop that is dependent on the communication of many different cells. However, as the wealth of relevant scientific literature grew in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, it became apparent that single cells possess the ability to do the same. The first observations of durotaxis in isolated cells were that mechanical stimuli could cause the initiation and elongation of axons in the sensory and brain neurons of chicks and induce motility in previously stationary fish epidermal keratocytes. ECM stiffness was also noted to influence cytoskeletal stiffness, fibronectin fibril assembly, the strength of integrin-cytoskeletal interactions, morphology and motility rate, all of which were known influence cell migration.