2022 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Utilization of viscoelastic substrates to study actin/MTs coordination and subsequent mechanobiological functionalities
| Project/Area Number |
21J40229
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Institution | National Institute for Materials Science |
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Principal Investigator |
Abdelaleem Shimaa 国立研究開発法人物質・材料研究機構, 機能性材料研究拠点, 特別研究員(RPD)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-28 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Mechanobiology / Viscoelastic material / EMT / Actomyosin / ECM concentration / nanoparticle / microtubules / AFM |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
ECM is the source of diversified mechanical and biochemical cues that alters cellular responses. Deciphering this complexity using biomaterials would increase our understanding of these unique cellular behaviors in ailing and health conditions.
In addition to the viscoelastic properties as a mechanical cue, I focused on the ECM concentrations as a chemical cue to investigate the MTs and actomyosin crosstalk. In this work, cRGD as a chemical cue causes an alteration in the actin distribution, and this would alter Actin-MTs crosstalk (Preliminary results was presented at a conference).
In joint research, the photoactivatable surfaces were used to investigate the effect of gravity vector on collective cell migration and 3D cellular architectures. These allowed the remote induction of cellular migration. The inversion of cells against the gravity vector resulted in the remodeling of the actomyosin cytoskeletal system that alters the 3D cluster architecture and migratory phenotype (Preliminary results were presented at a conference, paper Accepted STAM 2023).
In another joint research, the interactions of the cells with gold nanoparticles functionalized with epidermal growth factor variants were studied. The mechanism for the selective cytotoxic activity of a specific GNP-EGF variant was illustrated (Published in Analytical Science 2023).
Another research, we investigated the cytoskeletal response to various environmental stimuli using AFM, we measured the cytoskeletal stress distribution under various conditions (Preliminary results were presented at a conference, Paper submitted)
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I aim to simplify the complexity of natural ECM to understand in depth various cytoskeletal responses related to mechanical and biochemical cues. Now, I use biochemical cues as the cRGD concentrations coated gold substrates as a primary platform to investigate the actin-MTs crosstalk. These materials are straightforward to prepare, saving a lot of time. it represents an essential part of ECM cues. The biological investigations and rationalization of these investigations took time. However, there were no specific delays in the biological investigation and analysis. The results were obtained within a reasonable time frame. These results are now under preparation for publication.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Next, we focus on various MTs subtypes involved in the cytoskeletal crosstalk observed for cells cultured in different cRGD concentrations. Visualizing targeted proteins and posttransitional MT modifications to identify the MTs biochemical status. RNA silencing, transfection, and rt-PCR would be utilized to clarify the underlying mechanism of MTs-Actin crosstalk. After that, I would use hydrogels with various mechanical properties (diversified degree of elasticity and viscosity) as a final model to identify the underlying mechanisms of actin/MTs crosstalk
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Research Products
(5 results)
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[Presentation] Cell under Stress: Probing Intracellular Force Dynamics using Atomic Force Microscope2022
Author(s)
H. Wang, H. Zhang, R. Tamura, B. Da, S. A. Abdellatef, I. Watanabe, N. Ishida, D. Fujita, N. Hanagata, T. Nakagawa, J. Nakanishi
Organizer
NIMS week
