Journal of Biomechanics

James H-C. Wang, Edward S. Grood, Jane Florer, Richard Wenstrup


Previous studies showed that many types of cells aligned in microgroves in static cultures. However, whether cells remain aligned and also proliferate in microgrooves under stretching conditions has not been determined. We grew MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts in deformable silicone dishes containing microgrooves oriented in the stretch direction. We found that with or without 4% stretching, cells aligned in microgrooves of all sizes, with the groove and ridge widths ranged from 1 to 6 mm, but the same groove depth of about 1.6 mm. In addition, actin cytoskeleton and nuclei became highly aligned in the microgrooves with and without 4% cyclic stretching. To further examine whether MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts proliferate in microgrooves with cyclic stretching, we grew cells in 6-well silicone dishes containing microgrooves in three wells and smooth surfaces in another three wells. After 4% cyclic stretching for 3,4,and 7 days, we found that cell numbers in the microgrooves were not significantly different (p < 0.05) from those on the smooth surface (p < 0.05). Taken together, these results show that MC3T3-E1 osteoblasta can align and proliferate in microgrooves with 4% cyclic stretching. We suggest that the silicone microgrooves can be a useful tool to study the phenotype of MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts uner controlled substrate strains. The silicone microgrooves can also be useful for delivering defined substrate strains to other adherent cells in cultures.