BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2025.1484769

This article is part of the Research TopicParadigm Shifts and Innovations in Cellular NeuroscienceView all 11 articles

Towards a role for the acoustic field in cells interaction

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Istituto di Struttura della Materia - CNR, Rome, Italy
  • 2National Research Council (CNR), Roma, Lazio, Italy
  • 3Department of Earth System Sciences and Technologies for the Environment, National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Lazio, Italy
  • 4Department of Pediatric Specialties, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital (IRCCS), Rome, Lazio, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Nanoscale motility of cells is a fundamental phenomenon, closely associated with biological status and response to environmental solicitations, whose investigation has disclosed new perspectives for the comprehension of cell behaviour and fate. To investigate intracellular interactions, we designed an experiment to monitor movements of clusters of neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y) growing on a nanomechanical oscillator (nanomotion sensor) suspended few hundreds of microns over the surface of a Petri dish where other neuroblastoma cells are freely moving. We observed that the free-to-move cells feel the presence of cells on the nearby nanosensor (at a distance of up to 300 microns) and migrate toward them, even in presence of environmental hampering factors, such as medium microflows. The interaction is bidirectional since, as evidenced by nanomotion sensing, the cells on the sensor enhance their motion when clusters of freely moving cells approach. Considering the geometry and environmental context, our observations extend beyond what can be explained by sensing of chemical trackers, suggesting the presence of other physical mechanisms. We hypothesize that the acoustic field generated by cell vibrations can have a role in the initial recognition between distant clusters. Integrating our findings with a suitable wave propagation model, we show that mechanical waves produced by cellular activity have sufficient energy to trigger mechanotransduction in target cells hundreds of microns away. This interaction can explain the observed distance-dependent patterns of cellular migration and motion alteration. Our results suggest that acoustic fields generated by cells can mediate cell-cell interaction and contribute to signalling and communication.

Keywords: cell-cell interactions, Nanomotion sensor, Mechanical waves, acoustic field, Neuroblastoma cell, Cell behaviour

Received: 28 Aug 2024; Accepted: 26 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Girasole, Moretti, Di Giannatale, Di Paolo, Galardi, Lampis, Dinarelli and Longo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Pier Francesco Moretti, National Research Council (CNR), Roma, 00185, Lazio, Italy
Giovanni Longo, Istituto di Struttura della Materia - CNR, Rome, Italy

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