Microengineering 3D Collagen Matrices with Tumor-Mimetic Gradients in Fiber Alignment.

ABSTRACT: In the tumor microenvironment (TME), collagen fibers facilitate tumor cell migration through the extracellular matrix. Previous studies have focused on studying the responses of cells on uniformly aligned or randomly aligned collagen fibers. However, the in vivo environment also features spatial gradients in alignment, which arise from the local reorganization of the matrix architecture due to cell-induced traction forces. Although there has been extensive research on how cells respond to graded biophysical cues, such as stiffness, porosity, and ligand density, the cellular responses to physiological fiber alignment gradients have been largely unexplored. This is due, in part, to a lack of robust experimental techniques to create controlled alignment gradients in natural materials. In this

SUBMITTER: Joshi IM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10369918 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature