In vitro biophysical study reveals directed migration and alignment of living cells along dynamically shifting wrinkles, indicating active guidance by evolving surface curvature.
Key Points
To develop a reconfigurable soft material platform capable of producing dynamic wrinkle topographies and evaluate how evolving surface curvature directs living cell migration.
Fabricated a stiff surface layer on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cylindrical substrate using infrared laser cross-linking, followed by uniaxial compression to generate sinusoidal wrinkles.
Reconfigured wrinkle patterns dynamically using a custom rotation device, modeling defect nucleation, propagation, and annihilation using the anisotropic Swift-Hohenberg equation.
Employed upright confocal microscopy to perform real-time visualization of cell attachment, alignment, and migration across dynamically changing wrinkle landscapes.
Substrate rotation induced rich pattern dynamics, characterized by wrinkle rotation, fragmentation, reassociation, S-like bending, and topological defect annihilation.
Living cells successfully adhered to the dynamic substrate and actively coordinated their migration and orientation along traveling wrinkle waves.