Directional cell migration normally relies on a variety of external signals, such as chemical, mechanical, or electrical, which instruct cells in which direction to move. Many of the major molecular and physical effects derived from these cues are now understood, leading to questions about whether directional cell migration is alike or distinct under these different signals, and how cells might be directed by multiple simultaneous cues, which would be expected in complex in vivo environments. In this review, we compare how different stimuli are spatially distributed, often as gradients, to direct cell movement and the mechanisms by which they steer cells. A comparison of the downstream effectors of directional cues suggests that different external signals regulate a common set of components: small GTPases and the actin cytoskeleton, which implies that the mechanisms downstream of different signals are likely to be closely related and underlies the idea that cell migration operates by a common set of physical principles, irrespective of the input.

定向细胞迁移通常依赖于指示细胞向哪个方向移动的各种外部信号，例如化学、机械或电信号。现在已经了解了源自这些线索的许多主要分子和物理效应，从而引发了关于定向细胞迁移在这些不同信号下是相似还是不同的问题，以及细胞如何受到多个同时线索的引导，这在复杂的情况下是预期的。体内环境。在这篇综述中，我们比较了不同的刺激如何在空间上分布，通常作为梯度，以指导细胞运动以及它们引导细胞的机制。定向线索下游效应器的比较表明，不同的外部信号调节一组共同的成分：小 GTP 酶和肌动蛋白细胞骨架，这意味着不同信号的下游机制可能密切相关，并且是细胞迁移的基础无论输入如何，都按照一组通用的物理原理运行。