title: Steering cell migration using microarray amplification of natural directional persistence.
abstract: Cell locomotion plays a key role in embryonic morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. Here we show that intermittent control of cell shape using microarrays can be used to amplify the natural directional persistence of cells and guide their continuous migration along preset paths and directions. The key to this geometry-based, gradient-free approach for directing cell migration is the finding that cell polarization, induced by the asymmetric shape of individual microarray islands, is retained as cells traverse between islands. Altering the intracellular signals involved in lamellipodia extension (Rac1), contractility (RhoA), and cell polarity (Cdc42) alters the speed of fibroblast migration on these micropatterns but does not affect their directional bias significantly. These results provide insights into the role of cell morphology in directional movement and the design of micropatterned materials for steering cellular traffic.
authors.affiliation: Chemical & Materials Engineering Department, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0012, United States.
authors.forename: Girish
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Carlos C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Co
authors.forename: Chia-Chi
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Ho
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D048430:Cell Shape / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D011554:Pseudopodia / Q000378:metabolism; D020764:cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D020764:cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein