We report the establishment of a library of micromolded elastomeric micropost arrays to modulate substrate rigidity independently of effects on adhesive and other material surface properties. We demonstrate that micropost rigidity impacts cell morphology, focal adhesions, cytoskeletal contractility, and stem cell differentiation. Furthermore, early changes in cytoskeletal contractility predicted later stem cell fate decisions at the single cell level.Cell function is regulated primarily by extracellular stimuli, including soluble and adhesive factors that bind to cell surface receptors. Recent evidence suggests that mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM), particularly rigidity, can also mediate cell signaling, proliferation, differentiation, and migration 1,2 . Culturing cells on hydrogels derived from natural ECM proteins at different densities has dramatic effects on cell adhesion, morphology, and function 3 . However, changing densities of the gels impacts not only mechanical rigidity, but also the amount of ligand, leaving uncertainty as to the relevant contribution of these two matrix properties on the observed cellular response. Synthetic ECM analogs such as polyacrylamide or polyethylene glycol gels, which vary rigidity by modulating the amount of cross-linker, has revealed that substrate rigidity alone can modulate many cellular functions, including stem cell differentiation 4-6 . However, altered cross-linker amount impacts not only bulk mechanics, but also molecular-scale material properties including porosity, surface chemistry, backbone flexibility, and binding properties of immobilized adhesive ligands 7,8 . Consequently, whether cells transduce substrate rigidity at the microscopic scale (eg sensing the rigidity between adhesion sites) or the nanoscopic scale (eg sensing local alterations in receptor-ligand binding characteristics) remains an open question 7,8 . While hydrogels will continue to play a major role in characterizing and controlling cell-material interactions, alternative approaches are necessary to further elucidate the basis by which cells sense changes in substrate rigidity.

Modulations of cytoskeletal organization and focal adhesion turnover correlate to tumorigenesis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), the latter process accompanied by the loss of epithelial markers and the gain of mesenchymal markers (e.g., vimentin). Clinical microarray results demonstrated that increased levels of vimentin mRNA after chemotherapy correlated to a poor prognosis of breast cancer patients. We hypothesized that vimentin mediated the reorganization of cytoskeletons to maintain the mechanical integrity in EMT cancer cells. By using knockdown strategy, the results showed reduced cell proliferation, impaired wound healing, loss of directional migration, and increased large membrane extension in MDA-MB 231 cells. Vimentin depletion also induced reorganization of cytoskeletons and reduced focal adhesions, which resulted in impaired mechanical strength because of reduced cell stiffness and contractile force. In addition, overexpressing vimentin in MCF7 cells increased cell stiffness, elevated cell motility and directional migration, reoriented microtubule polarity, and increased EMT phenotypes due to the increased β1-integrin and the loss of junction protein E-cadherin. The EMT-related transcription factor slug was also mediated by vimentin. The current study demonstrated that vimentin serves as a regulator to maintain intracellular mechanical homeostasis by mediating cytoskeleton architecture and the balance of cell force generation in EMT cancer cells.