title: From immobilized cells to motile cells on a bed-of-nails: effects of vertical nanowire array density on cell behaviour.
abstract: The field of vertical nanowire array-based applications in cell biology is growing rapidly and an increasing number of applications are being explored. These applications almost invariably rely on the physical properties of the nanowire arrays, creating a need for a better understanding of how their physical properties affect cell behaviour. Here, we investigate the effects of nanowire density on cell migration, division and morphology for murine fibroblasts. Our results show that few nanowires are sufficient to immobilize cells, while a high nanowire spatial density enables a "bed-of-nails" regime, where cells reside on top of the nanowires and are fully motile. The presence of nanowires decreases the cell proliferation rate, even in the "bed-of-nails" regime. We show that the cell morphology strongly depends on the nanowire density. Cells cultured on low (0.1 μm(-2)) and medium (1 μm(-2)) density substrates exhibit an increased number of multi-nucleated cells and micronuclei. These were not observed in cells cultured on high nanowire density substrates (4 μm(-2)). The results offer important guidelines to minimize cell-function perturbations on nanowire arrays. Moreover, these findings offer the possibility to tune cell proliferation and migration independently by adjusting the nanowire density, which may have applications in drug testing.
authors.affiliation: Division of Solid State Physics, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.|NanoLund, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Persson
authors.affiliation: Division of Solid State Physics, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.|NanoLund, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Division of Solid State Physics, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.|NanoLund, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jonas O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Tegenfeldt
authors.affiliation: NanoLund, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.|Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35B, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Stina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oredsson
authors.affiliation: Division of Solid State Physics, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.|NanoLund, Lund University, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.|Neuronano Research Center, Lund University, Sölvegatan 19, 221 84 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Christelle N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Prinz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D002460:Cell Line; D002465:Cell Movement; D053144:Cell Nucleus Shape; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D048430:Cell Shape; D018914:Cells, Immobilized / Q000166:cytology; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016650:Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D048631:Micronucleus, Germline / Q000378:metabolism; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D016650:Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate