Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : September 03, 2023 - September 06, 2023
Cell adhesion control is a crucial challenge in the design of biomaterials to achieve specific cellular functions and applications. For instance, when implanting artificial organs into the human body, suppressing undesirable cell adhesion becomes essential to avoid adverse biological responses such as blood coagulation and thrombosis. On the other hand, for tissue reconstruction using cell scaffolding materials, ensuring appropriate cell adhesion to the material surface is required. Particularly, cell adhesion morphology is closely associated with cellular processes, including proliferation, differentiation, and orderly structural formation, making versatile control of cell adhesion indispensable in tissue engineering. Cell-substrate adhesion progresses through the binding of cell surface proteins, known as integrins, to adhesion ligands on the material surface. Therefore, the degree of cell adhesion can be manipulated by modulating the presentation of adhesion ligand quantity and its spatial density on the material surface. Traditional material design has focused on modifying adhesion ligand chemistry and physical adsorption characteristics. Additionally, numerous reports have highlighted the significance of material surface mechanics as essential variables in cell adhesion control. As cells exert traction forces on the adhesive substrate, the deformable substrate causes simultaneous movement of integrin-ligand pairs. Consequently, the deformation characteristics of the adhesion interface significantly influence the spatial distribution of adhesion ligands and the binding stability to integrins, representing vital design elements.
