Authors: Johansson et al.

Journal: Biomaterials Advances (2023)

Institution: Istituto di Biofisica

Cell Lines: Fibroblasts

Summary: Visceral myopathy (VM) is a rare gastrointestinal motility disorder that has been difficult to diagnose and treat due to a lack of reliable biomarkers. In this study, the researchers investigated the potential of patient-derived dermal fibroblasts as disease markers for VM. They analyzed fibroblast cultures from seven patients with VM and compared them to fibroblasts from seven healthy control subjects. The researchers evaluated several parameters, including cell morphology, proliferation rate, and migration capacity.The results showed that VM fibroblasts had distinct morphological changes compared to healthy control fibroblasts, as well as reduced proliferation rates and migration capacity. The researchers also found that certain gene expressions were dysregulated in VM fibroblasts, suggesting altered cellular pathways involved in tissue remodeling and repair. The findings of this study may have important implications for the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for VM, and may also have broader applications for other rare gastrointestinal motility disorders.HoloMonitor enabled the researchers to track individual cells in real time and analyze their morphological features and dynamics over time.

Keywords: HoloMonitor M3, Cell morphology, Mechanobiology, Visceral myopathy, Cell morpho-mechanical phenotype