Data from: Reversibility of nuclear and 3D Genomic changes in non-cancerous fibroblasts after constricted migration

Metastatic cancer cells and healthy fibroblasts must traverse through
tight constrictive spaces to reach secondary sites. We have previously
shown that human melanoma (A375) cells that pass through multiple
constricted migrations experience stable changes to their nucleus
morphology and 3D genome structures and undergo a stable phenotype
transition from a low to high migratory state. Here, we investigate
whether fibroblasts (BJ-5ta), which are non-cancerous and have an inherent
ability to migrate to fulfill roles in wound repair, experience nuclear
and 3D genomic changes with constricted migration. While BJ-5ta cells do
not get progressively better at migrating with sequential attempts,
confocal microscopy analysis of cells stained for Lamin A/C and DAPI after
migration shows that these cells do experience nuclear deformations after
constricted migration. Unlike the stable changes observed in cancer cells,
however, these deformations recovered back to unmigrated levels following
proliferation and cell movement and did not induce fibrotic smooth muscle
alpha actin expression in these cells. Our study shows that healthy
migratory cells are not more robust against alterations caused by
constricted migration but can recover from the ones that do arise more
readily than cancer cells.