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Title: Cell contact guidance via sensing anisotropy of network mechanical resistance

Despite the ubiquitous importance of cell contact guidance, the signal-inducing contact guidance of mammalian cells in an aligned fibril network has defied elucidation. This is due to multiple interdependent signals that an aligned fibril network presents to cells, including, at least, anisotropy of adhesion, porosity, and mechanical resistance. By forming aligned fibrin gels with the same alignment strength, but cross-linked to different extents, the anisotropic mechanical resistance hypothesis of contact guidance was tested for human dermal fibroblasts. The cross-linking was shown to increase the mechanical resistance anisotropy, without detectable change in network microstructure and without change in cell adhesion to the cross-linked fibrin gel. This methodology thus isolated anisotropic mechanical resistance as a variable for fixed anisotropy of adhesion and porosity. The mechanical resistance anisotropy |Y*|−1− |X*|−1increased over fourfold in terms of the Fourier magnitudes of microbead displacement |X*| and |Y*| at the drive frequency with respect to alignment directionYobtained by optical forces in active microrheology. Cells were found to exhibit stronger contact guidance in the cross-linked gels possessing greater mechanical resistance anisotropy: the cell anisotropy index based on the tensor of cell orientation, which has a range 0 to 1, increased by 18% with the fourfold increase in mechanical resistance anisotropy. We also show that modulation of adhesion via function-blocking antibodies can modulate the guidance response, suggesting a concomitant role of cell adhesion. These results indicate that fibroblasts can exhibit contact guidance in aligned fibril networks by sensing anisotropy of network mechanical resistance.

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NSF-PAR ID:
10275951
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume:
118
Issue:
29
ISSN:
0027-8424
Page Range / eLocation ID:
Article No. e2024942118
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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