Effect of Static Pre-stretch Induced Surface Anisotropy on Orientation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

ABSTRACT: Mechanical cues in the cellular environment play important roles in guiding various cell behaviors, such as cell alignment, migration, and differentiation. Previous studies investigated mechanical stretch guided cell alignment pre-dominantly with cyclic stretching whereby an external force is applied to stretch the substrate dynamically (i.e., cyclically) while the cells are attached onto the substrate. In contrast, we created a static pre-stretched anisotropic surface in which the cells were seeded subsequent to stretching the substrate. We hypothesized that the cell senses the physical environment through a more active mechanism, namely, even without external forces the cell can actively apply traction and sense an increased stiffness in the stretched direction and align in that directio

SUBMITTER: Liu C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3963186 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature