Photocontrolled DNA nanotubes as stiffness tunable matrices for controlling cellular behavior

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.

Automated summary

Cell behavior is affected by various properties of the extracellular environment, such as ligand spacing, nanotopography, and matrix stiffness. Changes in matrix stiffness occur during biological processes like wound healing, tumorigenesis, and development. These spatio-temporal dynamic changes in stiffness can significantly impact cell morphology, signaling, migration, and cytoskeleton. In this paper, we created photocontrolled stiffness-tunable DNA nanotubes that can reversibly change their conformation upon UV and VIS irradiation. When used as a substrate for cell culture, these nanotubes can tune the cell morphology of HeLa cells. This photocontrolled nanosystem provides insights into cell-matrix interactions caused by nanoscopic changes in stiffness in the native extracellular matrix.