Cellular Contact Guidance Emerges from Gap Avoidance

Antonetta B.C. Buskermolen; Tommaso Ristori; Dylan Mostert; Mark C. van Turnhout; Siamak S. Shishvan; Sandra Loerakker; Nicholas A. Kurniawan; Vikram S. Deshpande; Carlijn V.C. Bouten

Cell Reports Physical Science (May 2020)

Cellular Contact Guidance Emerges from Gap Avoidance

Antonetta B.C. Buskermolen,
Tommaso Ristori,
Dylan Mostert,
Mark C. van Turnhout,
Siamak S. Shishvan,
Sandra Loerakker,
Nicholas A. Kurniawan,
Vikram S. Deshpande,
Carlijn V.C. Bouten

Affiliations

Antonetta B.C. Buskermolen: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Tommaso Ristori: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Dylan Mostert: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Mark C. van Turnhout: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Siamak S. Shishvan: Department of Structural Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Sandra Loerakker: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Nicholas A. Kurniawan: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Corresponding author
Vikram S. Deshpande: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Carlijn V.C. Bouten: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Corresponding author

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 1, no. 5
p. 100055

Abstract

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Summary: In the presence of anisotropic biochemical or topographical patterns, cells tend to align in the direction of these cues—a widely reported phenomenon known as “contact guidance.” To investigate the origins of contact guidance, here, we created substrates micropatterned with parallel lines of fibronectin with dimensions spanning multiple orders of magnitude. Quantitative morphometric analysis of our experimental data reveals two regimes of contact guidance governed by the length scale of the cues that cannot be explained by enforced alignment of focal adhesions. Adopting computational simulations of cell remodeling on inhomogeneous substrates based on a statistical mechanics framework for living cells, we show that contact guidance emerges from anisotropic cell shape fluctuation and “gap avoidance,” i.e., the energetic penalty of cell adhesions on non-adhesive gaps. Our findings therefore point to general biophysical mechanisms underlying cellular contact guidance, without the necessity of invoking specific molecular pathways.

Published in Cell Reports Physical Science

ISSN: 2666-3864 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Science: Physics
Website: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science

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