The influence of surface morphology and rigidity of the substrata on cell motility

The purpose of this study is to measure the cell motility under different stiffness and pattern of the substrata. Human melanoma cells were used for this study. Three surface patterns including flat, 6 µm-cone, and 6 µm-groove on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were created by the micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS). Glass dish was used as control substrate. After cells were seeded for 30 min, the cell images were taken every minute for 2 h. Each group had 4–5 dishes and 27–38 cells were calculated. The cell motility was 1.13 ± 1.30, 2.12 ± 1.21, 2.39 ± 1.11 and 3.08 ± 1.49 µm/min on glass, flat, cone, and groove PDMS, respectively. Cells in PDMS groups moved significantly faster than the control group (glass) due to smaller stiffness of the former substrates. More than 80% of cells on grooved PDMS moved along the grooves, indicating the grooved surface morphology could control the direction of cell movement. Our results display that substrate modulus and pattern can influence cell motility.