No abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) respond to niche elasticity, which varies between and within tissues. Stiffness gradients result from pathological conditions but also occur through normal variation, e.g. muscle. MSCs undergo directed migration even in response to shallow stiffness gradients before differentiating. More refined gradients of both stiffness range and strength are needed to better understand mechanical regulation of migration in normal and disease pathologies. We describe polyacrylamide stiffness gradient fabrication using three distinct systems that generate stiffness gradients of physiological (1 Pa/µm), pathological (10 Pa/µm), and step (≥ 100Pa/um) strength spanning physiologically relevant stiffness for most soft tissue, i.e. 1–12 kPa. MSCs migrated to the stiffest region for each gradient. Time-lapse microscopy revealed that migration velocity scaled directly with gradient strength. Directed migration was reduced in the presence of the contractile agonist lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and cytoskeletal-perturbing drugs nocodazole and cytochalasin; LPA- and nocodazole-treated cells remained spread and protrusive, while cytochalasin-treated cells did not. Untreated and nocodazole-treated cells spread in a similar manner, but nocodazole-treated cells had greatly diminished traction forces. These data suggest that actin is required for migration whereas microtubules are required for directed migration. The data also imply that in vivo, MSCs may have a more significant contribution to repairs in stiffer regions where they may preferentially accumulate.

Summary β-adrenergic signaling pathways mediate key aspects of cardiac function. Its dysregulation is associated with a range of cardiac diseases, including dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Previously, we established an iPSC model of familial DCM from patients with a mutation in TNNT2, a sarcomeric protein. Here, we found that the β-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol induced mature β-adrenergic signaling in iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs), but that this pathway was blunted in DCM iPSC-CMs. Although expression levels of several β-adrenergic signaling components were unaltered between control and DCM iPSC-CMs, we found that phosphodiesterases (PDE) 2A and PDE3A were upregulated in DCM iPSC-CMs, and that PDE2A was also upregulated in DCM patient tissue. We further discovered increased nuclear localization of mutant TNNT2 and epigenetic modifications of PDE genes in both DCM iPSC-CMs and patient tissue. Notably, pharmacologic inhibition of PDE2A and PDE3A restored cAMP levels and ameliorated the impaired β-adrenergic signaling of in DCM iPSC-CMs, suggesting therapeutic potential.

Cell patterning is typically accomplished by selectively depositing proteins for cell adhesion only on patterned regions; however in tissues, cells are also influenced by mechanical stimuli, which can also result in patterned arrangements of cells. We developed a mechanically-patterned hydrogel to observe and compare it to extracellular matrix (ECM) ligand patterns to determine how to best regulate and improve cell type-specific behaviors. Ligand-based patterning on hydrogels was not robust over prolonged culture, but cells on mechanically-patterned hydrogels differentially sorted based on stiffness preference: myocytes and adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) underwent stiffness-mediated migration, i.e. durotaxis, and remained on myogenic hydrogel regions. Myocytes developed aligned striations and fused on myogenic stripes of the mechanically-patterned hydrogel. ASCs aligned and underwent myogenesis, but their fusion rate increased, as did the number of cells fusing into a myotube as a result of their alignment. Conversely, neuronal cells did not exhibit durotaxis and could be seen on soft regions of the hydrogel for prolonged culture time. These results suggest that mechanically-patterned hydrogels could provide a platform to create tissue engineered, innervated micro-muscles of neural and muscle phenotypes juxtaposed next to each other in order better recreate a muscle niche.

Though reduced serum or myoblast co-culture alone can differentiate adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) into mesenchymal lineages, efficiency is usually not sufficient to restore function in vivo. Often when injected into fibrotic muscle, their differentiation may be misdirected by the now stiffened tissue. Here ASCs are shown to not just simply reflect the qualitative stiffness sensitivity of bone-marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs) but to exceed BMSC myogenic capacity, expressing the appropriate temporal sequence of muscle transcriptional regulators on muscle-mimicking extracellular matrix in a tension and focal adhesion-dependent manner. ASCs formed multi-nucleated myotubes with a continuous cytoskeleton that was not due to misdirected cell division; microtubule depolymerization severed myotubes, but after washout, ASCs re-fused at a rate similar to pretreated values. BMSCs never underwent stiffness-mediated fusion. ASC-derived myotubes, when replated onto non-permissive stiff matrix, maintain their fused state. Together these data imply enhanced mechanosensitivity for ASCs, making them a better therapeutic cell source for fibrotic muscle.