Ake Fuhrmann

© 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. Stem cells regulate their fate by binding to, and contracting against, the extracellular matrix. Recently, it has been proposed that in addition to matrix stiffness and ligand type, the degree of coupling of fibrous protein to the surface of the underlying substrate, that is, tethering and matrix porosity, also regulates stem cell differentiation. By modulating substrate porosity without altering stiffness in polyacrylamide gels, we show that varying substrate porosity did not significantly change protein tethering, substrate deformations, or the osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of human adipose-derived stromal cells and marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells. Varying protein-substrate linker density up to 50-fold changed tethering, but did not affect osteogenesis, adipogenesis, surface-protein unfolding or underlying substrate deformations. Differentiation was also unaffected by the absence of protein tethering. Our findings imply that the stiffness of planar matrices regulates stem cell differentiation independently of protein tethering and porosity.

© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd. Several methods have been developed to quantify population level changes in cell attachment strength given its large heterogeneity. One such method is the rotating disk chamber or 'spinning disk' in which a range of shear forces are applied to attached cells to quantify detachment force, i.e. attachment strength, which can be heterogeneous within cell populations. However, computing the exact force vectors that act upon cells is complicated by complex flow fields and variable cell morphologies. Recent observations suggest that cells may remodel their morphology and align during acute shear exposure, but contrary to intuition, shear is not orthogonal to the radial direction. Here we theoretically derive the magnitude and direction of applied shear and demonstrate that cells, under certain physiological conditions, align in this direction within minutes. Shear force magnitude is also experimentally verified which validates that for spread cells shear forces and not torque or drag dominate in this assay, and demonstrates that the applied force per cell area is largely independent of initial morphology. These findings suggest that direct quantified comparison of the effects of shear on a wide array of cell types and conditions can be made with confidence using this assay without the need for computational or numerical modeling.

Human mesenchymal stem cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation have all been linked to extracellular matrix stiffness, yet the signaling pathway that are necessary for mechanotransduction remain unproven. Vinculin has been implicated as a mechanosen-sor in vitro, but here we demonstrate its ability to also regulate stem cell behavior, including hMSC differentiation. RNA interference-mediated vinculin knockdown significantly decreased stiffness-induced MyoD, a muscle transcription factor, but not Runx2, an osteoblast transcription factor, and impaired stiffness-mediated migration. A kinase binding accessibility screen predicted a cryptic MAPK1 signaling site in vinculin which could regulate these behaviors. Indeed, reintroduction of vinculin domains into knocked down cells indicated that MAPK1 binding site-containing vinculin constructs were necessary for hMSC expression of MyoD. Vinculin knockdown does not appear to interfere with focal adhesion assembly, significantly alter adhesive properties, or diminish cell traction force generation, indicating that its knockdown only adversely affected MAPK1 signaling. These data provide some of the first evidence that a force-sensitive adhesion protein can regulate stem cell fate. ©C AlphaMed Press.