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Control of myocyte remodeling in vitro with engineered substrates
Nicholas A Geisse1, Sean P Sheehy, Kevin Kit Parker
1School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology. Animal
|March 3, 2009
Summary
Cellular confinement influences cardiomyocyte shape and cytoskeleton organization. However, cell size remains constant regardless of shape, indicating a growth mechanism independent of cell geometry.
Area of Science:
- Cell Biology
- Biophysics
- Cardiovascular Research
Background:
- Tissue microenvironments critically regulate cell behavior through physical constraints.
- Cardiac morphogenesis involves changes in ventricular myocyte size, shape, and cytoskeleton.
- Understanding how cells adapt to spatial confinement is crucial for developmental biology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how neonatal rat ventricular myocytes adapt their size, shape, and intracellular architecture when spatially confined in vitro.
- To determine the relationship between cell geometry, cytoskeletal organization, and cell volume under defined extracellular boundary conditions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized microcontact printing to create defined fibronectin islands for physical cell constraint.
- Cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes on islands of varying shapes and aspect ratios.
- Employed confocal and atomic force microscopy for precise measurements of cell volume and cytoskeletal architecture.
Main Results:
- Myocytes spread to conform to island shapes and reorganized their cytoskeleton based on geometric cues.
- Myocytes on lower aspect ratio rectangles showed multiaxial myofibrillar arrangements; those on higher aspect ratios exhibited uniaxial orientation.
- Cell volume was conserved across different shapes with similar surface areas, despite cytoskeletal reorganization.
Conclusions:
- Myocyte cytoskeletal architecture is adaptable to extracellular boundary conditions.
- Overall cell size regulation appears independent of the cytoskeleton and cell geometry.
- Suggests an intrinsic growth control mechanism in myocytes not directly tied to physical constraints or cytoskeletal arrangement.
