Effect of Pore Size of Self-Organized Honeycomb-Patterned Polymer Films on Spreading, Focal Adhesion, Proliferation, and Function of Endothelial Cells

Abstract

The design of nano- and microstructures based on self-organization is a key area of research in the search for new materials, and it has a variety of potential applications in tissue engineering scaffolds. We have reported a honeycomb-patterned polymer film (honeycomb film) with highly regular pores that is formed by self-organization. This study describes the behavior of vascular endothelial cells (ECs) on honeycomb films with four different pore sizes (5, 9, 12, and 16 microm) as well as on a flat film. We examined the influence of the honeycomb pattern and pore size on cell behavior. The changes in cell morphologies, actin filaments, vinculin clusters, cell proliferation, and secreted extracellular matrix (ECM) (fibronectin, laminin, type IV collagen, and elastin) production profiles were observed by using optical, fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy. The ECs that adhered to the flat film showed an elongated morphology with random orientation; the actin filaments and focal adhesions were not conspicuous. On the other hand, the ECs on the honeycomb films exhibited greater spreading and flattening; the degree of spreading of the ECs increased with an increase in the pore size. The actin filaments and focal adhesions appeared conspicuous, and the focal adhesions localized along the edge of the honeycomb pores were distributed over the entire projected cell area. The honeycomb film with a pore size of 5 microm showed the highest cell proliferation and ECM production profiles. These results suggest that the honeycomb film is a suitable material for designing a new vascular device.

Influence of the pattern size of micropatterned scaffolds on cell morphology, proliferation, migration and F-actin expression

“…This allowed the effect of the pattern size of the scaffold, and no other factors, on cell functions to be investigated. The mean area of cells grown on triangles with 3 µm long sides was smaller than 8 that of cells grown on triangles with 4-15 µm long sides (Fig. 2I).…”

“…In cells cultured on 3D patterned scaffolds, the expression levels of adhesion signalling complexes, 43 focal adhesion kinase 13,43 and F-actin, 13,15,44 their proliferative, 8,13,20,22 cell aggregation [17][18][19][20] and metabolic 13,[19][20][21] capacities, and their differentiation potential, 9, 23 differ from those of cells cultured on flat surfaces.…”

Bioactive Plasma‐Polymerized Bipolar Films for Enhanced Endothelial Cell Mobility

“…[31][32][33][34] As reported, the elongated cells not only had increased proliferation and extracellular matrix production, but also had higher migrations speeds as compared to their spread out counterparts. [14,17,35] Since migration into wound site was a major mode re-endothelialization, enhanced EC motility might greatly promote healing after device implantation. Therefore, the proliferation and migration of HUVECs were further determined.…”

Photo-initiated grafting of gelatin/N-maleic acyl-chitosan to enhance endothelial cell adhesion, proliferation and function on PLA surface

“…The results on cell retention percentage indicated that upon exposure to physiologically relevant shear stress the endothelium maintained cell population on the gel/NMCS-PLA, whilst failed on unmodified PLA, resulting a 1.6 times higher cell number on the gel/NMCS-PLA surface upon perfusion at 5 dyn cm À2 over 24 h. Endothelium endures high vascular shear stresses through cytoskeleton and ECM remodeling that allows strong adhesions between the cell and homing molecules [42]. We attributed the prevention of cell loss on the surface-modified samples to their higher cell-material interaction, and more completed endothelium composed of higher intercellular adhesion molecular amount compared to their unmodified counterparts.…”