Role of Mechanical Stimulations in Directing Mesenchymal Stem Cell Adipogenesis - The Mechanobiology of Obesity and Related Diseases - page 79

Fig. 8 Nanoscale spacing of RGD cell-adhesive motifs influences MSC fate decision into
adipogenesis and osteogenesis. MSCs were cultured on nanopatterns with varying RGD spacing
from 37 to 124 nm under osteogenic/adipogenic mixed media. Fast blue RR salt staining (blue)
for osteogenesis and oil Red O staining (red) for adipogenesis are shown. On larger RGD
nanospacings, MSC osteogenesis was favored over adipogenesis. Reprinted with permission from
Elsevier [ 52 ]
from the substrate coating. While these studies suggested the role of substrate
rigidity on MSC fate, very little attention has been paid to the substrate stiffness
effect on the MSC adipogenesis.
4 Perspective
This chapter introduced the control of MSC fate decision toward adipogenesis (and
the relative direction to osteogenesis) via mechanophysical cues. The mechano-
physical cues can be derived from mechanical stimulations of cells from stretch,
compression, and fluid flow and static mechanical cues from varying substrate