Release of cellular tension signals self-restorative ventral lamellipodia to heal barrier micro-wounds

Live-cell imaging is shown of trans-cellular mechanical micro-wounding in MVEC transfected with actin-GFP (green) and membrane-DsRed (red). A single MVEC was subjected to 4 sequential mechanical micro-wounding events. Each time the initial wound rapidly expands as broken adhesions and cytoskeleton caused viscoelastic recoil of pre-existing tension. The MVEC then rapidly formed nodes of actin in a large ~20-30 micrometer radius around the pore with mixed VL and VW features. These exhibit directed propagation into the micro-wound to close it.