2020-09-03
Consistent
apparent Young’s modulus of human embryonic stem cells and derived cell
types stabilized by substrate stiffness regulation promotes lineage
specificity maintenance" has been reported on Cell Regeneration. Congratulations to Anqi Guo and Bingjie Wang!
Here, we show that the AYM of cells changed dynamically during passaging
and proliferation on substrates with different stiffness. Moreover, the
same change in substrate stiffness caused different patterns of AYM
change in epithelial and mesenchymal cell types. Embryonic stem cells
and their derived progenitor cells exhibited distinguishing AYM changes
in response to different substrate stiffness that had significant
effects on their maintenance of pluripotency and/or lineage-specific
characteristics. On substrates that were too rigid or too soft,
fluctuations in AYM occurred during cell passaging and proliferation
that led to a loss in lineage specificity. On a substrate with ‘optimal’
stiffness (i.e., 3.5 kPa), the AYM was maintained at a constant level
that was consistent with the parental cells during passaging and
proliferation and led to preservation of lineage specificity. The
effects of substrate stiffness on AYM and downstream cell fate were
correlated with intracellular cytoskeletal organization and
nuclear/cytoplasmic localization of YAP.