Hydrogels with Differential and Patterned Mechanics to Study Stiffness-Mediated Myofibroblastic Differentiation of Hepatic Stellate Cells

摘要

Myofibroblastic differentiation of HSCs was observed for HSCs cultured on stiff substrates whereas on soft substrates the majority of the HSCs remained quiescent. This behaviour is directly correlated to cellular spreading such that on stiff substrates HSC morphology changes significantly with intense cellular spreading, whereas cells maintain their quiescent rounded morphology on soft substrates. Our results show that HSC cell spreading can be controlled by patterning stiffness where cells show significantly low spreading for circular stiff regions at diameters ≤ 100μm. This study shows that cell spreading plays an important role and is necessary for myofibroblastic differentiation of HSCs, even on a stiff substrate.