[Effect of type I collagen and fibronectin on cell morphology of human MSCs in vitro]

Limited knowledge about behaviour of stem cells in culture seems to be one of the reasons for problems in their successful introduction to applied medicine. To address this issue we have studied in vitro interaction of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) with various substrates (plastic, type I collagen, fibronectin, and mixtures of these proteins at various ratios) during the 16-18 h after cell plating. Several cell morphology features such as Area, Perimeter, spreading coefficient, polarization coefficient were determined. It has been shown that MSCs respond specifically to the substrate and can be classified into several groups according to the parameters studied. Collagen preferably fibronectin have opposite effects on polarization and spreading of the cells. Collagen preferably enhances polarization of the cells, whereas fibronectin stimulates proportional spreading of cells. Effect of collagen-fibronectin mixture on the cells cannot be considered as a simple additive effect. We assume that variation in the ratio of these proteins in the extracellular matrix might be one of the possible ways to influence the morphology of stem cells when they are induced to differentiate.