Nanostructure arrays have drawn much attention and are promising as new biomaterials in the field of biomedicine. In recent years, numerous experimental studies on the cell behavior of nanostructured arrays (NSs) have been published, describing a wide variety of experimental results. But there are only a few theoretical analyses that elucidate the mechanisms of interactions between cells and nanostructures. Here we present a quantitative thermodynamic model to elucidate the effects of surface topography of nanostructure arrays on cell adhesion. Based on the established model, we studied the equilibrium state of cell adhesion by analyzing the change in free energy during the adhesion process. Theoretical results showed that cell adhesion mode is actually determined by the balance between adhesion energy and deformation energy of the cell membrane. According to the calculated results, a phase diagram of the cell adhesion has been constructed, which can clarify the interrelated effects of the radius and surface distribution density of nanopillars. We can identify the relation between the surface topography of nanostructure arrays and the cell adhesion mode from the phase.
Hydrogels are homogenous materials that are limited in their ability to form oriented multilayered architecture in three-dimensional (3D) tissue constructs. Current techniques have led to advancements in this area. Such techniques often require extra devices and/or involve complex processes that are inaccessible to many laboratories. Here is described a one-step methodology that permits reliable alignment of cells into multiple layers using a self-assembling multidomain peptide (MDP) hydrogels. We characterized the structural features, viability, and molecular properties of dental pulp cells fabricated with MDP and demonstrated that manipulation of the layering of cells in the scaffolds was achieved by decreasing the weight by volume percentage (w/v%) of MDP contained within the scaffold. This approach allows cells to remodel their environment and enhanced various gene expression profiles, such as cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling-related genes. We further validated our approach for constructing various architectural configurations of tissues by fabricating cells into stratified multilayered and tubular structures. Our methodology provides a simple, rapid way to generate 3D tissue constructs with multilayered architectures. This method shows great potential to mimic in vivo microenvironments for cells and may be of benefit in modeling more complex tissues in the field of regenerative medicine.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.