Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a disease with the median life expectancy being ~2.8 years from heart failure. It is induced by smooth muscle cell (SMC) hyperplasia and hypertrophy. It has been shown that the extracellular matrix (ECM) of hypertensive PA tissue is remodeled. In this work, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) micropost arrays replicated from epoxy master (micropost diameter 1 �m, pitch 2 �m and aspect ratio 4), were fabricated by soft lithography. By varying the PDMS formulation, we tuned the substrate stiffness to control the biophysical properties of ECM and to study how stiffness effect on SMC morphology and behavior. Optical microscopy showed that SMCs tend to be more differentiated on softer substrates, whereas on stiffer substrates, SMCs are more mesenchymal like. Understanding of the effects of ECM stiffness on SMC will provide important insight into the molecular mechanisms of this disease and may contribute to developing more efficient therapies.

Study of morphology and behavior of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells on elastomeric microposts

244th National Meeting (2012)

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