LMGP Seminar - 15/06/2016 - Brendon BAKER

Cell-mediated fibre recruitment drives extracellular matrix mechanosensing in engineered fibrillar microenvironments
Associate Pr, Brendon Baker
Dpt of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan
 
Abstract
To investigate how cells sense stiffness in settings structurally similar to native extracellular
matrices, we designed a synthetic fibrous material with tunable mechanics and user-defined
architecture. In contrast to flat hydrogel surfaces, these fibrous materials recapitulated cell-matrix
interactions observed with collagen matrices including stellate cell morphologies, cell-mediated
realignment of fibres, and bulk contraction of the material. Increasing the stiffness of flat hydrogel
surfaces induced mesenchymal stem cell spreading and proliferation; however, increasing fibre
stiffness instead suppressed spreading and proliferation for certain network architectures. Lower
fibre stiffness permitted active cellular forces to recruit nearby fibres, dynamically increasing
ligand density at the cell surface and promoting the formation of focal adhesions and related
signalling. These studies demonstrate a departure from the well-described relationship between
material stiffness and spreading established with hydrogel surfaces, and introduce fibre
recruitment as a previously undescribed mechanism by which cells probe and respond to
mechanics in fibrillar matrices.


Date infos
Grenoble INP - Phelma
Laboratoire LMGP
3 parvis Louis Néel - 38000 Grenoble
Accès : TRAM B arrêt Cité internationale
Free entrance - No registration
Location infos
10:00 h - 2ème étage - salle de séminaire