The role of cellular contractility in topography sensing on soft nanoporous polyacrylamide hydrogels

Abstract

Extracellular matrix physical characteristics have been shown to play an important role in cellular processes such as adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation. Of high importance are the stiffness and the topography of the extracellular matrix, which are believed to activate shared signalling pathways to cause a cellular response. In this work, we use polyacrylamide nanoporous hydrogels of different stiffness, both with and without microtopographical structures to see if these physical cues are truly sensed by the same mechanism, and an inhibitor of ROCK I to determine the role of cell contractility in the sensing of topography and stiffness