The glycocalyx affects the mechanotransductive perception of the topographical microenvironment

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Chighizola, Matteo and Dini, Tania and Marcotti, Stefania and D’Urso, Mirko and Piazzoni, Claudio and Borghi, Francesca and Previdi, Anita and Ceriani, Laura and Folliero, Claudia and Stramer, Brian and Lenardi, Cristina and Milani, Paolo and Podestà, Alessandro and Schulte, Carsten (2022) The glycocalyx affects the mechanotransductive perception of the topographical microenvironment. Journal of Nanobiotechnology, 20. 418. ISSN 1477-3155 (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12951-022-01585-5)

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Abstract

The cell/microenvironment interface is the starting point of integrin-mediated mechanotransduction, but many details of mechanotransductive signal integration remain elusive due to the complexity of the involved (extra)cellular structures, such as the glycocalyx. We used nano-bio-interfaces reproducing the complex nanotopographical features of the extracellular matrix to analyse the glycocalyx impact on PC12 cell mechanosensing at the nanoscale (e.g., by force spectroscopy with functionalised probes). Our data demonstrates that the glycocalyx configuration affects spatio-temporal nanotopography-sensitive mechanotransductive events at the cell/microenvironment interface. Opposing effects of major glycocalyx removal were observed, when comparing flat and specific nanotopographical conditions. The excessive retrograde actin flow speed and force loading are strongly reduced on certain nanotopographies upon strong reduction of the native glycocalyx, while on the flat substrate we observe the opposite trend. Our results highlight the importance of the glycocalyx configuration in a molecular clutch force loading-dependent cellular mechanism for mechanosensing of microenvironmental nanotopographical features. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].

ORCID iDs

Chighizola, Matteo, Dini, Tania, Marcotti, Stefania, D’Urso, Mirko, Piazzoni, Claudio, Borghi, Francesca, Previdi, Anita, Ceriani, Laura, Folliero, Claudia, Stramer, Brian, Lenardi, Cristina, Milani, Paolo, Podestà, Alessandro and Schulte, Carsten ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7554-5342;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)