Cytoskeletal and Focal Adhesion Influences on Mesenchymal Stem Cell Shape, Mechanical Properties, and Differentiation Down Osteogenic, Adipogenic, and Chondrogenic Pathways (original) (raw)
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PloS one, 2017
Stem cell fate has been linked to the mechanical properties of their underlying substrate, affecting mechanoreceptors and ultimately leading to downstream biological response. Studies have used polymers to mimic the stiffness of extracellular matrix as well as of individual tissues and shown mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) could be directed along specific lineages. In this study, we examined the role of stiffness in MSC differentiation to two closely related cell phenotypes: osteoblast and chondrocyte. We prepared four methyl acrylate/methyl methacrylate (MA/MMA) polymer surfaces with elastic moduli ranging from 0.1 MPa to 310 MPa by altering monomer concentration. MSCs were cultured in media without exogenous growth factors and their biological responses were compared to committed chondrocytes and osteoblasts. Both chondrogenic and osteogenic markers were elevated when MSCs were grown on substrates with stiffness <10 MPa. Like chondrocytes, MSCs on lower stiffness substrates showe...
Cell adhesion and mechanical stimulation in the regulation of mesenchymal stem cell differentiation
Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 2013
Introduction • General introduction of stem cell biology • Cell adhesion and the generation of adhesion forces • Cell adhesion regulates MSC differentiation • Substratum stiffness and MSC fate decisions • Molecular mechanisms relaying substratum stiffness-regulated cellular responses • Mechanical forces control MSC differentiation • Summary • Conclusions and future prospects
Mesenchymal stem cell responses to mechanical stimuli
Muscles, ligaments and tendons journal, 2012
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the potential to replace or restore the function of damaged tissues and offer much promise in the successful application of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies. Optimising culture conditions for the pre-differentiation of MSCs is a key goal for the research community, and this has included a number of different approaches, one of which is the use of mechanical stimuli. Mesenchymal tissues are subjected to mechanical stimuli in vivo and terminally differentiated cells from the mesenchymal lineage respond to mechanical stimulation in vivo and in vitro. MSCs have also been shown to be highly mechanosensitive and this may present an ideal method for controlling MSC differentiation. Here we present an overview of the response of MSCs to various mechanical stimuli, focusing on their differentiation towards the mesenchymal tissue lineages including bone, cartilage, tendon/ligament, muscle and adipose tissue. More research is needed to ...
Biology open, 2012
It has previously been demonstrated that cell shape can influence commitment of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMCs) to adipogenic, osteogenic, chondrogenic, and other lineages. Human periosteum-derived cells (hPDCs) exhibit multipotency similar to hBMCs, but hPDCs may offer enhanced potential for osteogenesis and chondrogenesis given their apparent endogenous role in bone and cartilage repair in vivo. Here, we examined whether hPDC differentiation is regulated by adhesive and mechanical cues comparable to that reported for hBMC differentiation. When cultured in the appropriate induction media, hPDCs at high cell seeding density demonstrated enhanced levels of adipogenic or chondrogenic markers as compared with hPDCs at low cell seeding density. Cell seeding density correlated inversely with projected area of cell spreading, and directly limiting cell spreading with micropatterned substrates promoted adipogenesis or chondrogenesis while substrates promoting cell ...
The understanding of the cytoskeleton's importance in stem cells is essential for their manipulation and further clinical application. The cytoskeleton is crucial in stem cell biology and depends on physical and chemicals signals to define its structure. Additionally, cell culture conditions will be important in the proper maintenance of stemness, lineage commitment and differentiation. This review focuses on the role of the actin cytoskeleton of stem cells during differentiation, the significance of cellular morphology, signaling pathways involved in cytoskeletal rearrangement in stem cells, the mechanobiology and mechanotransduction processes implicated in the interactions of stem cells with different surfaces of biomaterials, such as the nanotopography which is a physical cue influencing the differentiation of stem cells. Also, cancer stem cells are included since it is necessary to understand the role of their mechanical properties to develop new strategies to treat cancer. In this context, to study the stem cells requires integrated disciplines, including molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, physics, immunology, but also mechanobiology. Finally, as one of the purposes of stem cells is their application in regenerative medicine, their deepest understanding is necessary in order to establish safety protocols and effective cell-based therapies.
The objective of this study was to explore how the response of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to dynamic compression (DC) depends on their pericellular environment and the development of their cytoskeleton. MSCs were first seeded into 3% agarose hydrogels, stimulated with the chondrogenic growth factor TGF-β3 and exposed to DC (~10% strain at 1 Hz) for 1 h on either day 7, 14, or 21 of culture. At each time point, the actin, vimentin and tubulin networks of the MSCs were assessed using confocal microscopy. Similar to previous results, MSCs displayed a temporal response to DC; however, no dramatic changes in gross cytoskeletal organization were observed with time in culture. Vinculin (a membrane-cytoskeletal protein in focal adhesions) staining appeared more intense with time in culture. We next aimed to explore how changes to the pericellular environment, independent of the duration of exposure to TGF-β3, would influence the response of MSCs to DC. To this end, MSCs were encapsulated into either ‘soft’ or ‘stiff’ agarose hydrogels that are known to differentially support pericellular matrix (PCM) development. The application of DC led to greater relative increases in the expression of chondrogenic marker genes in the stiffer hydrogels, where the MSCs were found to have a more well developed PCM. These increases in gene expression were not observed following the addition of RGDS, an integrin blocker, suggesting that integrin binding plays a role in determining the response of MSCs to DC. Microtubule organization in MSCs was found to adapt in response to DC, but this effect was not integrin mediated, as this cytoskeletal reorganization was also observed in the presence of RGDS. In conclusion, although the PCM, integrin binding, and cytoskeletal reorganization are all involved in mechanotransduction of DC, none of these factors in isolation was able to completely explain the temporal mechanosensitivity of MSCs to dynamic compression.
European cells & materials, 2011
There is great interest in how bone marrow derived stem cells make fate decisions. Numerous studies have investigated the role of individual growth factors on mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, leading to protocols for cartilage, bone and adipose tissue. However, these protocols overlook the role of biomechanics on stem cell differentiation. There have been various studies that have applied mechanical stimulation to constructs containing mesenchymal stem cells, with varying degrees of success. One critical fate decision is that between cartilage and bone. Articular motion is a combination of compressive, tensile and shear deformations; therefore, one can presume that compression alone is unlikely to be a sufficient mechanical signal to generate a cartilage-like tissue in vitro. Within this study, we aimed to determine the role of shear on the fate of stem cell differentiation. Specifically, we investigated the potential enhancing effect of surface shear, superimposed on cyclic a...
Journal of Biomechanics, 2008
The mechanical properties of single cells play important roles in regulating cell-matrix interactions, potentially influencing the process of mechanotransduction. Recent studies also suggest that cellular mechanical properties may provide novel biological markers, or "biomarkers," of cell phenotype, reflecting specific changes that occur with disease, differentiation, or cellular transformation. Of particular interest in recent years has been the identification of such biomarkers that can be used to determine specific phenotypic characteristics of stem cells that separate them from primary, differentiated cells. The goal of this study was to determine the elastic and viscoelastic properties of three primary cell types of mesenchymal lineage (chondrocytes, osteoblasts, and adipocytes) and to test the hypothesis that primary differentiated cells exhibit distinct mechanical properties compared to adult stem cells (adipose-derived or bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells). In an adherent, spread configuration, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, and adipocytes all exhibited significantly different mechanical properties, with osteoblasts being stiffer than chondrocytes and both being stiffer than adipocytes. Adipose-derived and mesenchymal stem cells exhibited similar properties to each other, but were mechanically distinct from primary cells, particularly when comparing a ratio of elastic to relaxed moduli. These findings will help more accurately model the cellular mechanical environment in mesenchymal tissues, which could assist in describing injury thresholds and disease progression or even determining the influence of mechanical loading for tissue engineering efforts. Furthermore, the identification of mechanical properties distinct to stem cells could result in more successful sorting procedures to enrich multipotent progenitor cell populations.
Mesenchymal stem cell adhesion but not plasticity is affected by high substrate stiffness
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, 2012
The acknowledged ability of synthetic materials to induce cell-specific responses regardless of biological supplies provides tissue engineers with the opportunity to find the appropriate materials and conditions to prepare tissue-targeted scaffolds. Stem and mature cells have been shown to acquire distinct morphologies in vitro and to modify their phenotype when grown on synthetic materials with tunable mechanical properties. The stiffness of the substrate used for cell culture is likely to provide cells with mechanical cues mimicking given physiological or pathological conditions, thus affecting the biological properties of cells. The sensitivity of cells to substrate composition and mechanical properties resides in multiprotein complexes called focal adhesions, whose dynamic modification leads to cytoskeleton remodeling and changes in gene expression. In this study, the remodeling of focal adhesions in human mesenchymal stem cells in response to substrate stiffness was followed in the first phases of cell-matrix interaction, using poly-ε-caprolactone planar films with similar chemical composition and different elasticity. As compared to mature dermal fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells showed a specific response to substrate stiffness, in terms of adhesion, as a result of differential focal adhesion assembly, while their multipotency as a bulk was not significantly affected by matrix compliance. Given the sensitivity of stem cells to matrix mechanics, the mechanobiology of such cells requires further investigations before preparing tissue-specific scaffolds.
Scientific Reports, 2019
24 hours, MSCs adhered on the TCPS micro-dots of the micropatterned surfaces not on the PVA-grafted regions. At the seeding density of 3000 cells/cm 2 , most of the cells showed single cell adhesion on each TCPS micro-dots of the micropatterned surfaces (Fig. 2a). MSCs on the small TCPS micro-dots with a diameter of 20 μm did not spread, while MSCs on the large TCPS micro-dots with diameters of 40, 60 and 80 μm spread along the micro-dots. The cells showed the same circular morphology as that of the micro-dots. Cell spreading area was almost the same as that of the micro-dots. Therefore, cell morphology and spreading area were precisely controlled by the micropatterned surfaces. Staining of actin filaments and nuclei revealed that actin filament structure was different when the micro-dot size was changed (Fig. 2b). The actin filaments of micropatterned MSCs on the micro-dots with a diameter of 20 μm showed random structure without clear alignment. When the spreading area of micropatterned MSCs increased, alignment of actin filaments became more evident. The micropatterned MSCs on the micro-dots with a diameter of 80 μm exhibited highly aligned actin filaments that were well assembled along the radial and concentric directions.