1. Topography-driven alterations in endothelial cell phenotype and contact guidance
- Author
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Patrick van Rijn, Martin C. Harmsen, Ana Maria Almonacid Suarez, Iris van der Ham, Marja G. L. Brinker, Nanotechnology and Biophysics in Medicine (NANOBIOMED), and Restoring Organ Function by Means of Regenerative Medicine (REGENERATE)
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Cell biology ,Stromal cell ,MIGRATION ,Angiogenesis ,Endothelial cells ,Biophysics ,Adipose tissue ,Bioengineering ,Regenerative medicine ,ANGIOGENESIS ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Tissue engineering ,Contact guidance ,Live cell imaging ,lcsh:Social sciences (General) ,lcsh:Science (General) ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Chemistry ,Vascularization ,IN-VITRO ,Vascular-like networks ,Fibronectin ,Endothelial stem cell ,030104 developmental biology ,STROMAL CELLS ,biology.protein ,lcsh:H1-99 ,Directional topography ,Biomedical engineering ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,lcsh:Q1-390 - Abstract
Understanding how endothelial cell phenotype is affected by topography could improve the design of new tools for tissue engineering as many tissue engineering approaches make use of topography-mediated cell stimulation. Therefore, we cultured human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) on a directional topographical gradient to screen the EC vascular-like network formation and alignment response to nano to microsized topographies. The cell response was evaluated by microscopy. We found that ECs formed unstable vascular-like networks that aggregated in the smaller topographies and flat parts whereas ECs themselves aligned on the larger topographies. Subsequently, we designed a mixed topography where we could explore the network formation and proliferative properties of these ECs by live imaging for three days. Vascular-like network formation continued to be unstable on the topography and were only produced on the flat areas and a fibronectin coating did not improve the network stability. However, an instructive adipose tissue-derived stromal cell (ASC) coating provided the correct environment to sustain the vascular-like networks, which were still affected by the topography underneath. It was concluded that large microsized topographies inhibit vascular endothelial network formation but not proliferation and flat and nano/microsized topographies allow formation of early networks that can be stabilized by using an ASC instructive layer., Bioengineering; Biophysics; Cell biology; Biomedical engineering; Regenerative medicine; Directional topography; Endothelial cells; Vascular-like networks; Contact guidance; Vascularization
- Published
- 2020