| 研究実績の概要 |
In recent years, research that utilize micropattern geometries and structures to manipulate cellular behaviors have gained much attention. However, how the microstructures affect the directional movement of cells still remains unclear. This is particularly important for phenomenon like cancer metastasis, where cancer cells migrate through the different microstructures within our body. Understanding this rule will not only deepen our understanding of such phenomena, but also enable precise, structure-guided manipulation of cell motility on synthetic biomaterial devices for applications such as cancer diagnosis based on cell motility (as opposed to traditional antibody-based methods) and cell separation.
Although our research has deviated from the original plan due to technological difficulties, we have found many interesting phenomenon regarding the differences in response to microgroove topography for both cancerous and non-cancerous cells. For example, different types of cancerous cells could climb over the microgroove walls, whereas the normal cells typically migrate along the walls. Furthermore, by employing genetic alterations, we identified key molecular species related to cancer malignancy (APC, Ras) and how it relates to migration along microstructures. Our findings suggest that as cancer malignancy increases, the cancer cells become less sensitive to topographical cues, facilitating them to migrate to different parts of the body during metastasis. Our work has resulted in multiple publications, invited lectures and departmental seminars at multiple universities.
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