Directing cell migration with asymmetric micropatterns.
This report shows that the direction of polarization of attached mammalian cells determines the direction in which they move. Surfaces micropatterned with appropriately functionalized self-assembled monolayers constrain individual cells to asymmetric geometries (for example, a teardrop); these geometries polarize the morphology of the cell. After electrochemical desorption of the self-assembled monolayers removes these constraints and allows the cells to move across the surface, they move toward their blunt ends.
Jiang
Xingyu
X
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Bruzewicz
Derek A
DA
Wong
Amy P
AP
Piel
Matthieu
M
Whitesides
George M
GM
D000818:Animals; D019556:COS Cells; D002450:Cell Communication; D002465:Cell Movement; D016764:Cell Polarity; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells