AJP - Heart Calcium Transients and Cell-Sarcomere
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
 QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     


Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol (December 21, 2007). doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00816.2007
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
294/2/H1027    most recent
00816.2007v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Uttayarat, P.
Right arrow Articles by Lelkes, P. I
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Uttayarat, P.
Right arrow Articles by Lelkes, P. I
Submitted on July 13, 2007
Accepted on December 17, 2007

Microtopography and Flow Modulate the Direction of Endothelial Cell Migration

Pimpon Uttayarat1, Michelle Chen1, Mengyan Li2, Fred D Allen2, Russell J Composto1, and Peter I Lelkes2*

1 Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
2 School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lelkes123{at}aol.com.

The migration of vascular endothelial cells under flow can be modulated by the addition of chemical or mechanical stimuli. The aim of this study was to investigate how topographic cues derived from a substrate containing three-dimensional (3-D) microtopography interact with fluid shear stress in directing endothelial cell migration. Subconfluent bovine aortic endothelial cells were seeded on fibronectin-coated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrates patterned with a combinatorial array of parallel and orthogonal microgrooves ranging from 2 to 5 µm in width at a constant depth of 1 µm. During 4 h time-lapse observation in the absence of flow, the majority of the pre-aligned cells migrated parallel to the grooves with the distribution of their focal adhesions (FAs) depending on the groove width. No change in this migratory pattern was observed after the cells were exposed to moderate shear stress (13.5 dyn/cm2), irrespective of groove direction with respect to flow. After 4 h exposure to high shear stress (58 dyn/cm2) parallel to the grooves, the cells continued to migrate in the direction of both grooves and flow. By contrast, when microgrooves were oriented perpendicular to flow, most cells migrated orthogonal to the grooves and downstream with flow. Despite the change in the cells’ migration direction under high shear stress, most FAs and actin microfilaments maintained their original alignment parallel to the grooves, suggesting that topographic cues were more effective than those derived from shear stress in guiding the orientation of cytoskeletal and adhesion proteins during the initial exposure to flow.







HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
Visit Other APS Journals Online
Copyright © 1977 by the American Physiological Society.