title: Asymmetric nanotopography biases cytoskeletal dynamics and promotes unidirectional cell guidance.
abstract: Many biological and physiological processes depend upon directed migration of cells, which is typically mediated by chemical or physical gradients or by signal relay. Here we show that cells can be guided in a single preferred direction based solely on local asymmetries in nano/microtopography on subcellular scales. These asymmetries can be repeated, and thereby provide directional guidance, over arbitrarily large areas. The direction and strength of the guidance is sensitive to the details of the nano/microtopography, suggesting that this phenomenon plays a context-dependent role in vivo. We demonstrate that appropriate asymmetric nano/microtopography can unidirectionally bias internal actin polymerization waves and that cells move with the same preferred direction as these waves. This phenomenon is observed both for the pseudopod-dominated migration of the amoeboid Dictyostelium discoideum and for the lamellipod-driven migration of human neutrophils. The conservation of this mechanism across cell types and the asymmetric shape of many natural scaffolds suggest that actin-wave-based guidance is important in biology and physiology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742;
authors.forename: Xiaoyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; The Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742;
authors.forename: Meghan K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Driscoll
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; The Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742;
authors.forename: Can
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6558-1780
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guven
authors.affiliation: The Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742;
authors.forename: Satarupa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892;
authors.forename: Carole A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Parent
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 fourkas@umd.edu wlosert@umd.edu.
authors.forename: John T
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4522-9584
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Fourkas
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; The Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 fourkas@umd.edu wlosert@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Losert
mesh_terms: D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism*; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011554:Pseudopodia / Q000378:metabolism*
keywords: Dictyostelium discoideum; actin waves; cell migration; contact guidance; neutrophils