Living cells are constantly subjected to various mechanical stimulations, such as shear flow, osmotic pressure, and hardness of substratum. They must sense the mechanical aspects of their environment and respond appropriately for proper cell function. Cells adhering to substrata must receive and respond to mechanical stimuli from the substrata to decide their shape and/or migrating direction. In response to cyclic stretching of the elastic substratum, intracellular stress fibers in fibroblasts and endothelial, osteosarcoma, and smooth muscle cells are rearranged perpendicular to the stretching direction, and the shape of those cells becomes extended in this new direction. In the case of migrating Dictyostelium cells, cyclic stretching regulates the direction of migration, and not the shape, of the cell. The cells migrate in a direction perpendicular to that of the stretching. However, the molecular mechanisms that induce the directional migration remain unknown. Here, using a microstretching device, we recorded green fluorescent protein (GFP)-myosin-II dynamics in Dictyostelium cells on an elastic substratum under cyclic stretching. Repeated stretching induced myosin II localization equally on both stretching sides in the cells. Although myosin-II-null cells migrated randomly, myosin-II-null cells expressing a variant of myosin II that cannot hydrolyze ATP migrated perpendicular to the stretching. These results indicate that Dictyostelium cells accumulate myosin II at the portion of the cell where a large strain is received and migrate in a direction other than that of the portion where myosin II accumulated. This polarity generation for migration does not require the contraction of actomyosin.
This paper presents a microfluidic device that can automatically transport a droplet on a plastic plate. This device consists of a Cyclo Olefin Polymer (COP) plate and a SiO2 membrane and has wettability gradient surface. Lithographic patterns of hydrophilic SiO2 permitted wettability modification of a hydrophobic COP surface. A series of alternate hydrophobic and hydrophilic wedge-shaped patterns generated a required gradient in wettability. When we dropped a droplet on the wettability gradient surface, it moved along the wettability gradient due to an imbalance between surface tension forces acting on the opposite sides of the droplet edge. The droplet transportation test was carried out using water of 5 μl. As a result, we succeeded in automatically transporting the droplet on the SiO2/COP wettability gradient pattern. We also carried out droplet transportation in an enclosed microchannel for preventing droplet evaporation using DI (Deionized) water of 5 μl. In this case, the droplet was automatically transported by forming the wettability gradient pattern at the top and bottom in an enclosed microchannel without evaporation.
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