Photocontrolled DNA nanotubes as stiffness tunable matrices for controlling cellular behavior

Nanoscale. 2023 Feb 9;15(6):2904-2910. doi: 10.1039/d2nr05202d.

Abstract

Cell behavior is determined by a variety of properties of the extracellular environment like ligand spacing, nanotopography, and matrix stiffness. Matrix stiffness changes occur during many biological processes like wound healing, tumorigenesis, and development. These spatio-temporal dynamic changes in stiffness can cause significant changes in cell morphology, cell signaling, migration, cytoskeleton etc. In this paper, we have created photocontrolled stiffness-tunable DNA nanotubes which can undergo reversible changes in their conformation upon UV and VIS irradiation. When used as a substrate for cell culture, the photocontrolled DNA nanotubes can tune the cell morphology of HeLa cells from a long spindle-shaped morphology with long filopodia protrusions to a round morphology with short filopodia-like extrusions. Such a photocontrolled nanosystem can give us deep insights into the cell-matrix interactions in the native extracellular matrix caused by nanoscopic changes in stiffness.

MeSH terms

  • Cell Communication
  • Cell Culture Techniques*
  • Cytoskeleton
  • Extracellular Matrix* / chemistry
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans