Confined cell migration: Insights from in vitro and in silico methodologies

Cell migration is an essential biological process involved in development, wound healing, immune response, and cancer metastasis. Recent advances in imaging techniques in vivo have identified confined cell migration as a critical type of locomotion through tissues and vascular tracks. In particular, confined cell migration is crucial in cancer invasion and metastasis, as tumor infiltration necessitates cell migration through confined pores in tissue (1–20 μm) and vascular components (<5 μm). Although cell migration from a biological perspective has been extensively reviewed, recent developments in bioengineering tools such as three-dimensional in vitro models and computational modeling have opened new possibilities to study confined migration in normal development and in disease. This review focuses on in vitro bioengineered platforms and mathematical models developed to study the mechanisms of confined migration. We anticipate that further development of these bioengineered platform technologies, coupled with advances in computational modeling, including multi-scale models and machine learning, will be pivotal to facilitating mechanistic testing and evaluation of therapeutic strategies effectively targeting wound healing and cancer metastasis.