Katiyar Aditya, Dickinson Richard B, Lele Tanmay P
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2025;2958:159-167. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4714-1_11.
Micropost arrays are a valuable platform for studying cell migration in controlled microenvironments. These arrays enable researchers to mimic how migrating cells deform their nuclei in reaction to physical constraints presented by extracellular matrix (ECM) fibers during processes such as wound healing and cancer metastasis. By tuning micropost patterns and sizes, researchers can not only explore the impact of confining spaces created by such patterns on cell migration, signaling, and nuclear deformation but also simultaneously quantify cell-generated forces and forces of nuclear deformation. This paper outlines methods to design and fabricate ECM fiber mimicking micropost arrays for use in fundamental studies of confining cell migration.
微柱阵列是在可控微环境中研究细胞迁移的宝贵平台。这些阵列使研究人员能够模拟在伤口愈合和癌症转移等过程中，迁移细胞如何响应细胞外基质（ECM）纤维所呈现的物理限制而使细胞核变形。通过调整微柱的图案和尺寸，研究人员不仅可以探索此类图案所形成的受限空间对细胞迁移、信号传导和核变形的影响，还能同时量化细胞产生的力和核变形的力。本文概述了设计和制造用于限制细胞迁移基础研究的模拟ECM纤维微柱阵列的方法。
