Singh Anamika, Kim Hannah E, Rawson Lauren, Miao Margaret, Cohen Daniel J
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Omenn Darling Bioengineering Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Adv Mater. 2025 Aug;37(32):e2502425. doi: 10.1002/adma.202502425. Epub 2025 May 24.
A cell can bind to itself and form a self-adhesion that can be engineered and harnessed as a new way to adhere cells to engineered materials-a key challenge for biomaterials are demonstrated. Here, a 3D structure smaller is developed than a single cell, that a Self-Adhesion-Tunnel (SAT) is called, that causes cells to wrap around it and bind to themselves. This process is driven through the cadherin proteins that regulate cell-cell adhesion, and it is shown that many of the key elements of a normal cell-cell adhesion are found in self-adhesions. Size and shape of the SAT determine the efficiency of self-adhesion formation, and >90% efficient formation of self-adhesions are observed in both kidney and skin cells per SAT. Self-adhesions can persist for at least 24 hrs and act to stabilize the cell-material interface and reduce migration. Overall, this ability to co-opt the native cell-cell adhesion machinery in cells and use it as an attachment strategy can provide new approaches for soft-tissue implant integration and tissue engineering scaffolds where stable tissue-material interfaces are critical.
细胞能够与自身结合并形成自粘附，这种自粘附可以被设计和利用，作为将细胞粘附到工程材料上的一种新方法，这一关键挑战在生物材料领域得到了证明。在此，开发出一种比单个细胞更小的三维结构，称为自粘附隧道（SAT），它能使细胞围绕其包裹并与自身结合。这一过程由调节细胞间粘附的钙粘蛋白驱动，研究表明，自粘附中存在许多正常细胞间粘附的关键要素。SAT的大小和形状决定了自粘附形成的效率，每个SAT在肾细胞和皮肤细胞中均观察到>90%的高效自粘附形成。自粘附可以持续至少24小时，并起到稳定细胞-材料界面和减少迁移的作用。总体而言，这种利用细胞内天然细胞间粘附机制并将其用作附着策略的能力，可为软组织植入物整合和组织工程支架提供新方法，在这些领域中稳定的组织-材料界面至关重要。
