Molecular Science and Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, P. R. China.
J Mater Chem B. 2019 Sep 18;7(36):5528-5534. doi: 10.1039/c9tb01038f.
Mechanical signal transduction is fundamental for maintaining and regulating cellular processes and functions. Here, we proposed a novel near-infrared (NIR) light-responsive optomechanical actuator for the directional regulation of collective cell adhesion and migration. This optomechanical actuator that is made up of a thermal-responsive copolymer hydrogel and gold nanorods (AuNRs), enables non-invasive activation by NIR light stimulation. The activation of the optomechanical actuator leads to hydrogel contraction and an increase in Young's modulus, which could be used for applying contraction force to cells cultured on the surface of the hydrogel actuator. By grafting cell adhesive peptide ligands, the cells could attach onto the surface of the actuator and displayed a NIR light illumination intensity dependent migration rate along a random orientation. To achieve the controllable modulation of cell behaviors, we employed a microcontact printing strategy for patterned presentation of adhesive ligands on this actuator and achieved directional cell alignment and cell migration through optomechanical actuation. These demonstrations suggest that this robust optomechanical actuator is promising for the optical modulation of cellular events and cell functions in various bioapplications.
机械信号转导对于维持和调节细胞过程和功能至关重要。在这里，我们提出了一种新颖的近红外（NIR）光响应的光机械致动器，用于定向调节细胞的集体黏附和迁移。这种由热响应性共聚水凝胶和金纳米棒（AuNRs）组成的光机械致动器可以通过近红外光刺激进行非侵入式激活。光机械致动器的激活导致水凝胶收缩和杨氏模量增加，这可用于向培养在水凝胶致动器表面上的细胞施加收缩力。通过嫁接细胞黏附肽配体，细胞可以附着在致动器表面上，并显示出沿任意方向的 NIR 光照射强度依赖性迁移率。为了实现对细胞行为的可控调节，我们采用微接触印刷策略在该致动器上图案化呈现黏附配体，并通过光机械致动实现了细胞的定向排列和迁移。这些结果表明，这种强大的光机械致动器有望在各种生物应用中光学调节细胞事件和细胞功能。
