Microclaw Array Fabricated by Single Exposure of Femtosecond Airy Beam and Self-Assembly for Regulating Cell Migratory Plasticity

Abstract

The highly aligned extracellular matrix of metastatic breast cancer cells is considered to be the “highway” of cancer invasion, which strongly promotes the directional migration of cancer cells to break through the basement membrane. However, how the reorganized extracellular matrix regulates cancer cell migration remains unknown. Here, a single exposure of a femtosecond Airy beam followed by a capillary-assisted self-assembly process was used to fabricate a microclaw-array, which was used to mimic the highly oriented extracellular matrix of tumor cells and the pores in the matrix or basement membrane during cell invasion. Through the experiment, we found that metastatic breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells and normal breast epithelial MCF-10A cells exhibit three major migration phenotypes on microclaw-array assembled with different lateral spacings: guidance, impasse, and penetration, whereas guided and penetrating migration are almost completely arrested in noninvasive MCF-7 cells. In addition, different mammary breast epithelial cells differ in their ability to spontaneously perceive and respond to the topology of the extracellular matrix at the subcellular and molecular levels, which ultimately affects the cell migratory phenotype and pathfinding. Altogether, we fabricated a microclaw-array as a flexible and high-throughput tool to mimic the extracellular matrix during invasion to study the migratory plasticity of cancer cells.

High-Throughput Two-Photon 3D Printing Enabled by Holographic Multi-Foci High-Speed Scanning

“…By adopting sensitive photoresists with lower polymerization thresholds and intricate grayscale manipulation to optimize the intensity distribution, light patterns with larger foci number and overall sizes can be generated without compromising uniformity. Various phase information can be encoded on CGH to reconstruct light fields with higher degrees of freedom, including 3D multi-foci arrays , and various structure light arrays, , which endows the strategy with more flexibility and efficiency. With the above upgrade, our printing platform will continue to find new opportunities in micro/nanomanufacturing in numerous fields.…”

A porous micro/nano-structured polyethylene film prepared using a picosecond laser for agricultural passive cooling

“…35,36 In most cases, the laser beam forms microstructures on the substrate due to the thermal effect caused by the ablation of a high energy density laser. [37][38][39][40] These microstructures can enable material parts to have self-cleaning functions, as well as increase the reflectivity of several materials, reduce transmittance, and achieve passive cooling. [41][42][43][44] However, the preparation of passive cooling materials using a picosecond laser and their application in agriculture have not been reported.…”