|
||
Report |
Two distinct modes of myosin assembly and dynamics during epithelial wound closure
Correspondence to Michael P. Sheetz: ms2001{at}columbia.edu
|
|
|---|
Actomyosin contraction powers the sealing of epithelial sheets during embryogenesis and wound closure; however, the mechanisms are poorly understood. After laser ablation wounding of MadinDarby canine kidney cell monolayers, we observed distinct steps in wound closure from time-lapse images of myosin distribution during resealing. Immediately upon wounding, actin and myosin II regulatory light chain accumulated at two locations: (1) in a ring adjacent to the tight junction that circumscribed the wound and (2) in fibers at the base of the cell in membranes extending over the wound site. Rho-kinase activity was required for assembly of the myosin ring, and myosin II activity was required for contraction but not for basal membrane extension. As it contracted, the myosin ring moved toward the basal membrane with ZO-1 and Rho-kinase. Thus, we suggest that tight junctions serve as attachment points for the actomyosin ring during wound closure and that Rho-kinase is required for localization and activation of the contractile ring.
T.D. Perez's present address is Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.
Abbreviation used in this paper: MLC, myosin II regulatory light chain.
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Myosin is required for epithelial morphogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster (Young et al., 1993; Bertet et al., 2004; Nikolaidou and Barrett, 2004; Zallen and Wieschaus, 2004) and in Caenorhabditis elegans (Shelton et al., 1999). It is not clear, however, whether myosin is required as a motor to change cell shape, a regulator of cellcell and cellmatrix adhesion, or a combination of both. Myosin also plays an important role during epithelial wound healing in which cell migration is coordinated with the purse stringlike contraction of a thick cable of actin and myosin in the leading edge of marginal cells encompassing a large wound, drawing the wound edges together (Martin and Lewis, 1992; Bement et al., 1993; Wood et al., 2002). A purse stringlike cable is also formed around dead cell remnants to extrude apoptosed cells (Rosenblatt et al., 2001). How the actomyosin contractile apparatus is formed and how it drives cytoskeletal rearrangement to cause closure of epithelial sheets are important questions.
To address these questions, we examined the sequence of steps involved during wound closure in MDCK cell sheets by using live-cell time-lapse imaging of the cell shape, myosin, and other associated proteins. Our observations identify a regulatory mechanism for localized assembly and activation of a myosin ring at the tight junction in cells surrounding the wound. Ring contraction can integrate neighboring cell shape changes and appears to cooperate with another myosin complex at the extending basal membrane.
| Results and discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
Next, we analyzed MLC-EGFP distribution along the apicalbasal axis during wound closure in time-lapse images of XZ sections (Fig. 1, C and D). About 5 min after laser ablation, MLC-EGFP fluorescence began to accumulate at the borders between the apical and lateral membranes and between the basal and lateral membranes (referred to as the apicallateral border and basallateral border, respectively) of cells facing the wound. Both apical and basal MLC-EGFP moved toward the wound center. However, apical MLC-EGFP moved toward the basal cell membrane and eventually coalesced with basal MLC-EGFP at the base of cells (Fig. 1 D). Note that the shape of cells viewed in XZ sections changed from rectangular to triangular as the apical MLC-EGFP drew the upper edge inward and down to the base (Fig. 1 D). Thus, myosin movement tracked the closure of the wound, thinning adjacent cells to cover the wound.
In cells fixed
5 min after ablation, MLC-EGFP was concentrated in a ring around the wound, 3.5 µm above the base of the cells (Fig. 1 E). This MLC-EGFP ring corresponded to the accumulation of MLC-EGFP at the apical tip of the lateral membrane in XZ images (Fig. 1 D). The MLC-EGFP ring colocalized with F-actin identified by Alexa Fluor 568 phalloidin (Fig. 1 E). Basal XY sections of fixed cells also showed accumulation of MLC-EGFP fibers and F-actin around the wound (Fig. 1 E), and this MLC-EGFP accumulation appeared to correspond to the MLC-EGFP at the basallateral border in live cells (Fig. 1 D). An antibody specific for phospho-MLC (Thr18/Ser19) recognized both MLC at the apicallateral and basallateral borders of cells surrounding the wound (Fig. 1 F). Thus, both actin and active myosin are present at the apicallateral and basallateral borders, indicating a possible role of actomyosin contraction in wound closure.
These results indicate that MLC accumulated in two spatially distinct complexes: one at the basallateral border adjacent to cell extensions into the wound and the other in a ring at the apicallateral border of cells around the wound. The ring structure descended from its initial apical position to a basal position as it contracted and constricted the lateral membrane of cells surrounding the wound, thereby expelling remnants of dead cells into the medium as the continuity of the monolayer was restored (see Fig. 5 B).
Myosin activity is required for contraction of the actomyosin ring and wound closure
We tested whether myosin activity was required to contract the ring and close the wound. In the presence of blebbistatin, a nonmuscle myosin II ATPase inhibitor, MLC-EGFP accumulated at the apicallateral and basallateral borders in cells surrounding the wound (Fig. 2 A).
However, the MLC-EGFP ring did not contract, although the ring shape changed as cells extended into the wound from the basal membrane (Fig. 2 A b). Upon removal of blebbistatin, the MLC-EGFP ring began to contract and closed the wound within 5 min (Fig. 2 A). These results indicate that myosin is the motor providing the primary driving force to contract the MLC ring at the apicallateral border but not to extend basal membranes into the wound and that ring contraction is required to constrict the lateral membrane of cells so that the cells closing the wound coalesce into a vertex.
|
To determine the structure of the basal membrane protrusions in the XY plane, we analyzed cells expressing EGFP-actin. We found that cells extended lamellipodial protrusions into the wound site. However, in the presence of Y27632, lamellipodial protrusions were replaced by filopodia (Fig. 2 C). These results indicate that Rho-kinase is involved in actomyosin organization at both sites. At the apicallateral border, Rho-kinase is required for assembling the MLC ring and the following changes in cell shape during ring contraction. At the basallateral border, Rho-kinase is required to activate lamellipodial protrusion and maintain its morphology. The mechanism for MLC accumulation at the basallateral border is unknown. Because MLC accumulation was inhibited at both sites in cells expressing C3 toxin (unpublished data), both accumulations appear to be Rho dependent.
Rho-kinase accumulates at the apicallateral border of cells surrounding a wound
Because Rho-kinase is required for wound closure, we examined its localization during this process. Previous studies have shown that Rho-kinase is distributed in the cytoplasm (Matsui et al., 1996) but is localized specifically at the cleavage furrow during cytokinesis (Kosako et al., 1999) and along actin stress fibers (Kawabata et al., 2004) and vimentin intermediate filaments (Sin et al., 1998). EGFPRho-kinase, coexpressed with MLC-RFP, distributed diffusely in the cytoplasm and was not found with MLC-RFP at the base of cells within the intact monolayer (Fig. 3 B and not depicted).
Expression of EGFPRho-kinase did not affect the localization of MLC-RFP. After laser ablation, EGFPRho-kinase accumulated simultaneously with MLC-RFP at the apicallateral border facing the wound and then moved with MLC-RFP toward the base of the cell; meanwhile, coaccumulation of EGFPRho-kinase and MLC-RFP was not observed in the basallateral border (Fig. 3, A and C).
|
The myosin ring forms at the tight junction
Our results show that the actomyosin ring and its activator Rho-kinase colocalize at the apicallateral border of cells. This region of the plasma membrane of polarized epithelial cells contains many junctional complexes that constitute the tight junction and adherens junction. A previous report demonstrated that the tight junction scaffolding protein ZO-1 colocalized with actin filaments in the ring 1 h after wounding (Bement et al., 1993). To examine at which sites the actomyosin ring was organized and the dynamics of its localization, we compared the distribution of junctional proteins with the distribution of MLC in the apicallateral region.
In a cell expressing both MLC-RFP and ZO-1EGFP, MLC-RFP started to accumulate at the site of ZO-1EGFP concentration adjacent to the ablated cells within 5 min of ablation, and the two comigrated thereafter (Fig. 4, A and B).
As shown in Fig. 5 A, MLC accumulated slightly above the tip of E-cadherin or
-catenin signal but below claudin-1 and did not precisely colocalize with either of them, yet MLC accumulation colocalized with l-afadin at the apicallateral border.
Note that in MDCK cells the adherens junction is poorly developed and the major component of adherens junctions, E-cadherin, is localized over the entire surface of the lateral membrane and is not focused in an adherens junction (Vogelmann and Nelson, 2005). Significantly, addition of Y27632 caused ZO-1EGFP to remain at its initial position, and as shown previously, there was little or no accumulation of MLC or change in cell shape for 20 min after ablation (Fig. 4 C). These data suggest that a complex including ZO-1 and l-afadin localized at the cytoplasmic surface of tight junction strands serves as a scaffold for assembly and localization of the myosin ring adjacent to the wound. Although the molecular linkages involved are not fully understood, ZO-1 and l-afadin have been reported to link the actin cytoskeleton to tight junction strands and nectin, respectively (Tsukita et al., 2001; Takai and Nakanishi, 2003); therefore, ZO-1/claudin and l-afadin/nectin are good candidates to anchor the actomyosin cables to cellcell adhesion sites around the wound to form a continuous ring.
|
|
| Materials and methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Chemicals
Blebbistatin, Y27632, and ML-7 were purchased from Calbiochem.
Cells and transfection
MDCKII cells expressing Ecad-RFP, EGFP
-catenin (Yamada et al., 2005), or EGFP-actin (Ehrlich et al., 2002) were maintained in DME supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. MDCKII cells expressing MLC were maintained in DME supplemented with 10% calf serum. For live-cell imaging, we used complete medium buffered with 20 mM Hepes, pH 7.4. Plasmid transfection was performed with Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen) or Nucleofector (Amaxa Biosystems) according to the manufacturer's protocol. To isolate MDCKII cells stably expressing MLC-EGFP, MLC-RFP, or Ecad-RFP, cells were transfected with respective plasmid and clones were selected using G-418 (Invitrogen).
Laser ablation of cells
To ablate cells, we used an ultraviolet laser as described previously (Kiehart et al., 2000), a N2 laser (model VSL-337ND; Laser Science, Inc.) that produced 3-ns pulses of 6 µJ (at the source) of a 337.1-nm UV light mounted on a microscope (IX70; Olympus). The laser beam was directed onto a dichroic mirror (380DCLP; Chroma Technology Corp.) and passed through the objective (UApo/340, 40x; Olympus) onto the specimen. The dose of UV light delivered was adjusted by counting the number of pulses at 2 Hz. The laser was focused onto the cell to be ablated and activated while under bright field observation. One to three cells were ablated in each experiment.
Time-lapse imaging
Confluent monolayers of cells were grown on glass coverslips coated with collagen (type I; Sigma-Aldrich) for 2448 h and laser ablated. Images of cells were collected at 37°C with a microscope (40x/1.35 NA, oil-immersion objective; Olympus) through a cooled charge-coupled device camera (CoolSNAP HQ; Roper Scientific, Inc.) using Simple PCI software (Compix, Inc.) or with a confocal microscope (Fluoview 300; PlanApo; 60x/1.4 NA; oil-immersion objective; Olympus) configured on a microscope with Fluoview 2.1 software for 1560 min at 3060-s intervals. XZ images were collected at 30-s intervals. Image analysis was done with the open-source program ImageJ (NIH).
Immunofluorescence
After laser ablation, cells were maintained at 37°C for the indicated time and fixed in 3.7% (vol/vol) formaldehyde in PBS. Fixed cells were permeabilized with 0.2% Triton X-100 in PBS for 10 min and incubated with antiphospho-MLC (Thr18/Ser19) antibody (Cell Signaling) followed by detection with Alexa Fluor 568 anti-rabbit secondary antibody (Invitrogen). Cells were incubated with Alexa Fluor 568 phalloidin (Invitrogen) to visualize F-actin.
Online supplemental material
Fig. S1 shows the extrusion of laser-ablated cells by surrounding cells and F-actin ring around the ablated cell. Fig. S2 shows that ML-7 had little or no effect on either the MLC-EGFP accumulation or the ensuing cell shape changes. Video 1 is a time-lapse video of Ecad-RFP. Video 2 is a time-lapse video of MLC-EGFP. Video 3 is a time-lapse video of MLC-EGFP. Video 4 is a time-lapse video of MLC-EGFP in XZ sections showing cells at both sides of the wound. Video 5 is a time-lapse video of MLC-EGFP with Y27632. Video 6 is a time-lapse video of EGFPRho-kinase. Video 7 is a time-lapse video of MLC-RFP. Video 8 is a time-lapse video of ZO-1EGFP. Video 9 is a time-lapse video of MLC-RFP.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
T.D. Perez was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants RO1 EB001480 to M.P. Sheetz and RO1 GM35227 to W.J. Nelson.
Submitted: 18 September 2006
Accepted: 1 December 2006
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Bement, W.M., P. Forscher, and M.S. Mooseker. 1993. A novel cytoskeletal structure involved in purse string wound closure and cell polarity maintenance. J. Cell Biol. 121:565578.
Benink, H.A., and W.M. Bement. 2005. Concentric zones of active RhoA and Cdc42 around single cell wounds. J. Cell Biol. 168:429439.
Bertet, C., L. Sulak, and T. Lecuit. 2004. Myosin-dependent junction remodelling controls planar cell intercalation and axis elongation. Nature. 429:667671.[CrossRef][Medline]
Ehrlich, J.S., M.D. Hansen, and W.J. Nelson. 2002. Spatio-temporal regulation of Rac1 localization and lamellipodia dynamics during epithelial cell-cell adhesion. Dev. Cell. 3:259270.[CrossRef][Medline]
Ikebe, M., and D.J. Hartshorne. 1985. Phosphorylation of smooth muscle myosin at two distinct sites by myosin light chain kinase. J. Biol. Chem. 260:1002710031.
Kawabata, S., J. Usukura, N. Morone, M. Ito, A. Iwamatsu, K. Kaibuchi, and M. Amano. 2004. Interaction of Rho-kinase with myosin II at stress fibres. Genes Cells. 9:653660.
Kiehart, D.P., C.G. Galbraith, K.A. Edwards, W.L. Rickoll, and R.A. Montague. 2000. Multiple forces contribute to cell sheet morphogenesis for dorsal closure in Drosophila. J. Cell Biol. 149:471490.
Komatsu, S., T. Yano, M. Shibata, R.A. Tuft, and M. Ikebe. 2000. Effects of the regulatory light chain phosphorylation of myosin II on mitosis and cytokinesis of mammalian cells. J. Biol. Chem. 275:3451234520.
Kosako, H., H. Goto, M. Yanagida, K. Matsuzawa, M. Fujita, Y. Tomono, T. Okigaki, H. Odai, K. Kaibuchi, and M. Inagaki. 1999. Specific accumulation of Rho-associated kinase at the cleavage furrow during cytokinesis: cleavage furrow-specific phosphorylation of intermediate filaments. Oncogene. 18:27832788.[CrossRef][Medline]
Martin, P., and J. Lewis. 1992. Actin cables and epidermal movement in embryonic wound healing. Nature. 360:179183.[CrossRef][Medline]
Martin, P., and S.M. Parkhurst. 2004. Parallels between tissue repair and embryo morphogenesis. Development. 131:30213034.
Matsuda, M., A. Kubo, M. Furuse, and S. Tsukita. 2004. A peculiar internalization of claudins, tight junction-specific adhesion molecules, during the intercellular movement of epithelial cells. J. Cell Sci. 117:12471257.
Matsui, T., M. Amano, T. Yamamoto, K. Chihara, M. Nakafuku, M. Ito, T. Nakano, K. Okawa, A. Iwamatsu, and K. Kaibuchi. 1996. Rho-associated kinase, a novel serine/threonine kinase, as a putative target for small GTP binding protein Rho. EMBO J. 15:22082216.[Medline]
Nikolaidou, K.K., and K. Barrett. 2004. A Rho GTPase signaling pathway is used reiteratively in epithelial folding and potentially selects the outcome of Rho activation. Curr. Biol. 14:18221826.[CrossRef][Medline]
Rosenblatt, J., M.C. Raff, and L.P. Cramer. 2001. An epithelial cell destined for apoptosis signals its neighbors to extrude it by an actin- and myosin-dependent mechanism. Curr. Biol. 11:18471857.[CrossRef][Medline]
Russo, J.M., P. Florian, L. Shen, W.V. Graham, M.S. Tretiakova, A.H. Gitter, R.J. Mrsny, and J.R. Turner. 2005. Distinct temporal-spatial roles for rho kinase and myosin light chain kinase in epithelial purse-string wound closure. Gastroenterology. 128:9871001.[CrossRef][Medline]
Sato, T., N. Fujita, A. Yamada, T. Ooshio, R. Okamoto, K. Irie, and Y. Takai. 2006. Regulation of the assembly and adhesion activity of E-cadherin by nectin and afadin for the formation of adherens junctions in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells. J. Biol. Chem. 281:52885299.
Shelton, C.A., J.C. Carter, G.C. Ellis, and B. Bowerman. 1999. The nonmuscle myosin regulatory light chain gene mlc-4 is required for cytokinesis, anterior-posterior polarity, and body morphology during Caenorhabditis elegans embryogenesis. J. Cell Biol. 146:439451.[CrossRef][Medline]
Sin, W.C., X.Q. Chen, T. Leung, and L. Lim. 1998. RhoA-binding kinase alpha translocation is facilitated by the collapse of the vimentin intermediate filament network. Mol. Cell. Biol. 18:63256339.
Takai, Y., and H. Nakanishi. 2003. Nectin and afadin: novel organizers of intercellular junctions. J. Cell Sci. 116:1727.
Tsukita, S., M. Furuse, and M. Itoh. 2001. Multifunctional strands in tight junctions. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2:285293.[CrossRef][Medline]
Vogelmann, R., and W.J. Nelson. 2005. Fractionation of the epithelial apical junctional complex: reassessment of protein distributions in different substructures. Mol. Biol. Cell. 16:701716.
Wood, W., A. Jacinto, R. Grose, S. Woolner, J. Gale, C. Wilson, and P. Martin. 2002. Wound healing recapitulates morphogenesis in Drosophila embryos. Nat. Cell Biol. 4:907912.[CrossRef][Medline]
Yamada, S., S. Pokutta, F. Drees, W.I. Weis, and W.J. Nelson. 2005. Deconstructing the cadherin-catenin-actin complex. Cell. 123:889901.[CrossRef][Medline]
Young, P.E., A.M. Richman, A.S. Ketchum, and D.P. Kiehart. 1993. Morphogenesis in Drosophila requires nonmuscle myosin heavy chain function. Genes Dev. 7:2941.
Zallen, J.A., and E. Wieschaus. 2004. Patterned gene expression directs bipolar planar polarity in Drosophila. Dev. Cell. 6:343355.[CrossRef][Medline]
Related Article
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|