Abstract
Cell migration is a fundamental process that is crucial for many biological functions in the body such as immune responses and tissue regeneration. Dysregulation of this process is associated with cancer metastasis. In this study, polydimethylsiloxane platforms with various topographical features were engineered to explore the influence of guiding patterns on MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cell migration. Focusing on the guiding effects of grating patterns, variations such as etch depth, pattern discontinuity, and bending angles were investigated. In all experiments, MC3T3-E1 cells on patterned surfaces demonstrated a higher migration speed and alignment when compared to flat surfaces. The study revealed that an increase in etch depth from 150 nm to 4.5 μm enhanced cell alignment and elongation along the grating patterns. In the presence of discontinuous elements, cell migration speed was accelerated when compared to gratings of the same etch depth. These results indicated that cell directionality preference was influenced by a high level of pattern discontinuity. On patterns with bends, cells were more inclined to reverse on 45° bends, with 69% of cells reversing at least once, compared to 54% on 135° bends. These results are attributed to cell morphology and motility mechanisms that are associated with surface topography, where actin filament structures such as filopodia and lamellipodia are essential in sensing the surrounding environment and controlling cell displacement. Knowledge of geometric guidance cues could provide a better understanding on how cell migration is influenced by extracellular matrix topography in vivo.
Highlights
Cell migration is a fundamental process that is crucial for many biological functions in the body such as immune responses and tissue regeneration
In all three experimental groups, MC3T3-E1 cells were compared to those seeded on a flat surface and on gratings with the same etch depth as a control
This study explores different levels of pattern discontinuity on cell migration, which is related to how filopodia are probing and focal adhesions (FAs) are tuned to topographical intervals[18]
Summary
Cell migration is a fundamental process that is crucial for many biological functions in the body such as immune responses and tissue regeneration. Polydimethylsiloxane platforms with various topographical features were engineered to explore the influence of guiding patterns on MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cell migration. Studies have manipulated feature dimensions such as width, etch depth, and spacing, as well as different patterns, as a means to identify the best form of topographical guidance Other characteristics such as biochemicals and nano or micro scaled topographies, have been shown to influence cell g uidance[14,15]. Various cellular structures including integrins are part of a larger complex known as focal adhesions (FAs) and play a role in sensing the environment These structures facilitate the interaction between the cytoskeleton and intracellular components within the ECM through a number of signalling pathways, resulting in changes in the cytoskeleton and subsequently, cell function[20,21]. The findings of this study create an effective platform for the implementation of various topographic guiding patterns, which are shown to be successful in facilitating and controlling cell migration
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