Engineered Substrates with Dynamically Tunable Topography

Abstract

Cells receive biochemical, physicochemical, and mechanostructural information from the surrounding microenvironment to regulate their function and fate. In particular, topography, the structural information of the extracellular matrix, has been shown to strongly influence not only the mechanical support of tissues and organs but also cell polarity, migration, proliferation, and differentiation. Mechanobiological studies are being conducted to clearly elucidate the role of topography in cell function. However, advanced investigations have suggested that topography observed in vivo is not constant but changes with time, correlating with the development and progression of diseases. The development of cell culture substrates that can replicate such dynamic topographic environments in vitro is expected to be a major contribution of materials science as a dynamic topographical approach to the study of cell mechanobiology. This chapter outlines the correlation between dynamic topographic changes and cellular physiological functions in vivo and introduces materials that can induce equivalent dynamic topographic changes in cells and their design principles in vitro. In addition, this chapter describes the potential of such materials as tools for mechanobiological research by illustrating the effects of artificially created dynamic topographic changes on cellular behavior with several examples.