Anna Franz lab
In vivo swimming cell migration of Drosophila adipocytes

We study how adipocytes migrate by swimming in vivo. 

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Fat cells, also called adipocytes, were once believed to merely serve to store our energy and keep us warm. It is now clear that they also play important functions in wound healing. One of our studies in fruit flies showed that adipocytes, commonly presumed to be immobile, are actually motile cells that migrate towards wounds to enable wound repair and fight wound infection. Our study also showed that these large cells use swimming, a sub mode of amoeboid cell migration, to move inside the fluid-filled body cavity of Drosophila pupae. This makes them the first and currently only cell type known to use swimming migration in vivo. 

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Our goals now are to investigate the mechanism that underlies this in vivo swimming migration of adipocytes. In addition to this, we also study what roles motile adipocytes have in promoting wound healing. Finally, we are interested in understanding how the adipose tissue develops, especially with regards to its tissue architecture. 

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Our findings will provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying swimming cell migration, which might be used by other cells types such as immune cells or cancer cells when crossing fluid-filled body cavities.

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