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Human corneal epithelial cell response to substrate stiffness
- Source :
- Acta Biomaterialia. 11:324-332
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2015.
-
Abstract
- It has been reported that mechanical stimulus can affect cellular behavior. While induced differentiation in stem cells and proliferation and directional migration in fibroblasts are reported as responses to mechanical stimuli, little is known about the response of cells from the cornea. In the present study, we investigated whether changes in substrate stiffness (measured by elastic modulus) affected the behavior of human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs). Polyacrylamide substrates with different elastic moduli (compliant, medium and stiff) were prepared and HCECs were cultured on them. HCECs responses, including cell viability, apoptosis, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression, integrin-α3β1 expression and changes in cytoskeleton structure (actin fibers) and migratory behavior, were studied. No statistically significant cell activation, as measured by ICAM-1 expression, was observed. However, on compliant substrates, a higher number of cells were found to be apoptotic and disrupted actin fibers were observed. Furthermore, cells displayed a statistically significant lower migration speed on compliant substrates when compared with the stiffer substrates. Thus, corneal epithelial cells respond to changes in substrate stiffness, which may have implications in the understanding and perhaps treatment of corneal diseases, such as keratoconus.
- Subjects :
- Materials science
Cell Survival
Acrylic Resins
Biomedical Engineering
Apoptosis
Mechanotransduction, Cellular
Biochemistry
Biomaterials
Cell Movement
Elastic Modulus
Cornea
Cell Adhesion
medicine
Humans
Viability assay
Mechanotransduction
Cytoskeleton
Molecular Biology
Cells, Cultured
Actin
Cell Proliferation
Tissue Scaffolds
Epithelium, Corneal
Epithelial Cells
Cell migration
General Medicine
eye diseases
Cell biology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Stress, Mechanical
sense organs
Stem cell
Cell activation
Biotechnology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17427061
- Volume :
- 11
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Acta Biomaterialia
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....3cb841a408bf7acb347d18c9dfe01ef2