ArticleNature communications2025
Frictiotaxis underlies focal adhesion-independent durotaxis.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tissue flow acts as a guidance cue for immune cell polarization and directional migration.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- Computational insights on the interplay between electrotaxis and mechanotaxis.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Microengineered Gradient Hydrogels for Mechanobiology.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Physiomimetic culture bias durotaxis toward soft environments.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neuromechanobiology: Bridging Mechanobiology and Neuroscience Through Evidence and Open Questions.Cells · 2026Review
- Computational models in directed cell migration.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Compressed Cells Facilitate Adhesion Through Glycocalyx.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Cell-matrix and cell-cell interaction mechanics in guiding migration.Biochemical Society transactions · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Cells move directionally along gradients of substrate stiffness - a process called durotaxis. In the situations studied so far, durotaxis relies on cell-substrate focal adhesions to sense stiffness and transmit forces that drive directed motion. However, whether and how durotaxis can take place in the absence of focal adhesions remains unclear. Here, we show that confined cells can perform durotaxis despite lacking focal adhesions. This durotactic migration depends on an asymmetric myosin distribution and actomyosin retrograde flow. We propose that the mechanism of this focal adhesion-independent durotaxis is that stiffer substrates offer higher friction. We put forward a physical model that predicts that non-adherent cells polarise and migrate towards regions of higher friction - a process that we call frictiotaxis. We demonstrate frictiotaxis in experiments by showing that cells migrate up a friction gradient even when stiffness is uniform. Our results broaden the potential of durotaxis to guide any cell that contacts a substrate, and they reveal a mode of directed migration based on friction. These findings have implications for cell migration during development, immune response and cancer progression, which usually takes place in confined environments that favour adhesion-independent amoeboid migration.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.