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Cancer cell migration on straight, wavy, loop and grid microfibre patterns.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Piano, Nicholas 
Cozens, Edward Jonathan 

Abstract

Cell migration plays an important role in physiological and pathological processes where the fibrillar morphology of extracellular matrices (ECM) could regulate the migration dynamics. To mimic the morphological characteristics of fibrillar matrix structures, low-voltage continuous electrospinning was adapted to construct straight, wavy, looped and gridded fibre patterns made of polystyrene (of fibre diameter ca. 3μm). Cells were free to explore their different shapes in response to the directly-adhered fibre, as well as to the neighbouring patterns. For all the patterns studied, analysing cellular migration dynamics of MDA-MB-231 (a highly migratory breast cancer cell line) demonstrated two interesting findings: first, although cells dynamically adjust their shapes and migration trajectories in response to different fibrillar environments, their average step speed is minimally affected by the fibre global pattern; secondly, a switch in behaviour was observed when the pattern features approach the upper limit of the cell body's minor axis, reflecting that cells' ability to divert from an existing fibre track is limited by the size along the cell body's minor axis. It is therefore concluded that the upper limit of cell body's minor axis might act as a guide for the design of microfibre patterns for different purposes of cell migration.

Description

Keywords

breast cancer, cell migration, extracellular matrix, pattern, topography, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Movement, Extracellular Matrix, Humans, MCF-7 Cells, Neoplasms

Journal Title

Biofabrication

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1758-5082
1758-5090

Volume Title

14

Publisher

IOP Publishing
Sponsorship
European Research Council (758865)
ERC H2020