Abstract
The shape of epithelial tissue supports physiological functions of organs such as intestinal villi and corneal epithelium. Despite the mounting evidence showing the importance of geometry in tissue microenvironments, the current understanding on how it affects biophysical behaviors of cells is still elusive. Here, we cultured cells on various protruded convex structure such as triangle, square, and circle shape fabricated using two-photon laser lithography and quantitatively analyzed individual cells. Morphological data indicates that epithelial cells can sense the sharpness of the corner by showing the characteristic cell alignments, which was caused by actin contractility. Cell area was mainly influenced by surface convexity, and Rho-activation increased cell area on circle shape. Moreover, we found that intermediate filaments, vimentin, and cytokeratin 8/18, play important roles in growth and adaptation of epithelial cells by enhancing expression level on convex structure depending on the shape. In addition, microtubule building blocks, α-tubulin, was also responded on geometric structure, which indicates that intermediate filaments and microtubule can cooperatively secure mechanical stability of epithelial cells on convex surface. Altogether, the current study will expand our understanding of mechanical adaptations of cells on out-of-plane geometry.
Highlights
The shape of epithelia affects the physiological function [1,2,3] and supports homeostasis [4] of various epithelial organ system
We found that vimentin IFs play important roles in growth and growth and adaptation of epithelial cells
Since it is well-known about the major group of responded to convex geometric structure. Since it is well-known about the major group of cytoskeletons cytoskeletons as actin, microtubule, intermediate filament, we further studied whether mechanical as actin, microtubule, intermediate filament, we further studied whether mechanical adaptation of adaptation of epithelial cells can be related with microtubule organization
Summary
The shape of epithelia affects the physiological function [1,2,3] and supports homeostasis [4] of various epithelial organ system. Loss of original shape in epithelia is frequently related with diseases; for instance, the largely expanded cysts in renal tubule is a sign of polycystic kidney disease [1], which induces the malfunction of kidneys. A recent finding suggested that the tubular diameter of epithelial organ can determine patterns of tumorigenicity [5], demonstrating tumorigenesis can be affected by geometric features of epithelial lumens. 3D native tissue exhibits complex features such as curved tissues, winding tubules, sphere structure, etc. 3D native tissue exhibits complex features such as curved tissues, winding tubules, sphere structure, etc. [14], in which the cell
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