Biophysical cues can facilitate the cardiac differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), yet the mechanism is far from established. One of the binary colloidal crystals, composed of 5 μm Si and 400 nm poly(methyl methacrylate) particles named 5PM, has been applied as a substrate for hPSCs cultivation and cardiac differentiation. In this study, cell nucleus, cytoskeleton, and epigenetic states of human induced pluripotent stem cells on the 5PM were analyzed using atomic force microscopy, molecular biology assays, and the assay for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (ATAC-seq). Cells were more spherical with stiffer cell nuclei on the 5PM compared to the flat control. ATAC-seq revealed that chromatin accessibility decreased on the 5PM, caused by the increased entry of histone lysine methyltransferase SETDB1 into the cell nuclei and the amplified level of histone H3K9me3 modification. Reducing cytoskeleton tension using a ROCK inhibitor attenuated the nuclear accumulation of SETDB1 on the 5PM, indicating that the effect is cytoskeleton-dependent. In addition, the knockdown of SETDB1 reversed the promotive effects of the 5PM on cardiac differentiation, demonstrating that biophysical cue-induced cytoskeletal tension, cell nucleus deformation, and then SETDB1 accumulation are critical outside-in signal transformations in cardiac differentiation. Human embryonic stem cells showed similar results, indicating that the biophysical impact of the 5PM surfaces on cardiac differentiation could be universal. These findings contribute to our understanding of material-assistant hPSC differentiation, which benefits materiobiology and stem cell bioengineering.
Keywords: biophysical cues; epigenetics; histone modulation; pluripotent stem cell; topography.