Fibronectin controls capillary endothelial cell growth by modulating cell shape.

An in vitro system has been developed to study the mechanism by which fibronectin (FN) regulates capillary endothelial cell growth in the presence of soluble angiogenic mitogens. Endothelial cells were cultured in chemically defined medium containing a constant, saturating amount of basic fibroblast growth factor. Formation of cell-FN contacts was then varied in a controlled fashion by three different techniques: (i) nonadhesive, bacteriological dishes were precoated with increasing densities of FN; (ii) soluble RGD peptides were used to progressively inhibit binding of cell-surface integrin receptors to adsorbed FN; and (iii) FN-coated surfaces were covered with increasingly thick layers of polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate (a nonadhesive polymer) to physically restrict cell access to FN binding sites. Endothelial cells became more extended and proliferated more rapidly as FN coating concentrations were raised from approximately 250 to approximately 10,000 FN molecules per micron 2. Computerized morphometric analysis confirmed that cell shape (projected cell areas) was determined by the density of FN contacts and that DNA synthetic levels were tightly coupled to the extent of cell spreading, regardless of the method used to perturb cell adhesion. In contrast, neither soluble FN nor cell-surface binding of FN-coated microbeads (diameter, 4.5 microns) had any effect on growth when cells were grown in suspension and cell spreading was prohibited. These results suggest that FN controls capillary endothelial cell proliferation based on its ability to support tension-dependent alterations of cell shape--i.e., both by binding to cell-surface integrins and by resisting mechanical loads that are applied to these receptors.