Tuning Migratory and Cytoskeletal Response of Cells to Texture with Collagen-IV Coating*

Cell migration is vital for many physiological processes, both beneficial and detrimental. Actin is a cytoskeletal protein scaffold that assembles and disassembles to accomplish cell motion in a specific region and direction. A stimulus must be provided to influence guided cellular motion. In addition to biochemical signals, physical cues such as the texture of the environment also provide a guiding stimulus. To better understand how cytoskeletal and migratory processes integrate biochemical information with texture information, we studied actin dynamics and migration of MCF10A cells, an immortalized human breast epithelial cell line, on 3D nanotopographical surfaces. We systematically varied the coating with collagen IV, a basement membrane protein representing key biochemistry of the local ECM. Preliminary studies show that the response of actin to surface texture significantly depends on collagen coating concentration.

Acknowledgements: This work was performed in collaboration with Carole Parent, Stan Lipkowitz, and Christina Stuelten.