Portrait of a Cell Under Stress
Portrait of a Cell Under Stress
Nazanin Rohani Larijani
MIT Department of Biology, Koch Institute at MIT
This image shows how cell invasive phenotype is affected under low pH conditions. Low extracellular pH is a hallmark of tumor microenvironment. Cells within the tumor microenvironment are exposed to acidic regions, which has been shown to promote growth and metastasis. Such conditions while harsh on normal cells promotes invasion and migration on cancer cells therefor an advantage for tumor cell invasion. In this image, a breast cancer cell becomes highly aggressive and invades the substrates (black puncta) when exposed to stress conditions.