It is now increasingly recognized that the stiffness of the surrounding tissue may have a profound influence on fate and function of anchorage-dependent cells. Previous advancements in the understanding of cellular mechanosensitivity in an extracellular environment have been made using linker-functionalized polymeric gels of adjustable stiffness. In contrast, less is known about processes about cellular mechanosensitivity in response to mechanical signals from neighboring cells, considered to be significant in processes, such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition and vascular leakage during inflammation. To overcome this shortcoming, we previously introduced the polymer-tethered lipid multi-bilayer as a cell surface mimetic of adjustable stiffness to explore processes of cellular mechanosensitivity of adhering/migrating cells. Here, we present recent results about the assembly and characterization the cadherin-functionalized polymer gel-tethered lipid bilayer (PGTB) system as an advanced cell surface mimetic for the analysis of cellular mechnosensitivity. Like other polymer-tethered membrane architectures, PGTB enable the dynamic assembly of individual cadherin molecules into cadherin linker clusters at cell-substrate linkages to enable cell spreading and migration. Moreover, unlike polymer-tethered lipid multi-bilayer systems, PGTB allow the adjustment of substrate stiffness over the whole physiologically relevant range. In particular, we will describe different PGTB assembly strategies and will discuss properties of plated cells, such as cell spreading and cell-substrate linkage distribution and dynamics.

Polymer gel-tethered lipid bilayer: Cell surface mimetic of tunable viscoelasticity

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.