Role of Mechanical Stimulations in Directing Mesenchymal Stem Cell Adipogenesis - The Mechanobiology of Obesity and Related Diseases - page 77

Fig. 7 Patterned cell shape affects MSC fate decision into adipogenesis and osteogenesis.
a Rectangular shapes with increasing aspect ratio induced MSC osteogenesis over adipogenesis.
b Pentagons with different subcellular curvature affected MSC fate. c Histograms showing the
composition of cells positive for adipogenesis and osteogenesis for pentagons with different
curvature. The flower shape favored adipogenesis while the star shape favored osteogenesis.
Reprinted with permission from the National Academy of Sciences of the United States [ 21 ]
Microscale ECM protein patterning used for cell micropatterning is thus a
factor to regulate MSC fate. How about nanoscale arrangement of ECM protein
motifs? One recent study patterned cell-adhesive arginine-glycine-aspartic acid
(RGD), a functional motif of ECM protein, into dot patterns with nanoscale
spacing from 37 to 124 nm and tested MSC osteogenesis and adipogenesis [ 52 ]. It