Steering cell migration using microarray amplification of natural directional persistence.

Cell locomotion plays a key role in embryonic morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. Here we show that intermittent control of cell shape using microarrays can be used to amplify the natural directional persistence of cells and guide their continuous migration along preset paths and directions. The key to this geometry-based, gradient-free approach for directing cell migration is the finding that cell polarization, induced by the asymmetric shape of individual microarray islands, is retained as cells traverse between islands. Altering the intracellular signals involved in lamellipodia extension (Rac1), contractility (RhoA), and cell polarity (Cdc42) alters the speed of fibroblast migration on these micropatterns but does not affect their directional bias significantly. These results provide insights into the role of cell morphology in directional movement and the design of micropatterned materials for steering cellular traffic.