Padilla Ghigliotty, Luis

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    Evaluation of the effect of substrate modulus of elasticity on cancerous cell cultures
    (2014-05) Padilla Ghigliotty, Luis; Sundaram, Paul A.; College of Engineering; Díaz Rivera, Rubén E.; Diffoot Carlo, Nanette; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Almodóvar Montañez, Jorge L.
    Cell adhesion and spreading affect physiological functions, such as cell growth, differentiation and motility. These characteristics in turn are affected by the properties of the substrate such as roughness, stiffness and modulus of elasticity. The aim of this research is to understand the manner in which properties of the substrate, specifically the modulus of elasticity, can affect vinculin expression during cell adhesion of non-cancerous and cancerous cells. Vinculin expression of two breast adenocarcinoma cells lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) and on non-cancerous breast cell line (MCF-12A) cultured on three types of biomaterials (Polyethylene terephthalate, Polycarbonate and Glass) was studied using immunofluorescence labeling and analyzing the images obtained from confocal microscopy using ImageJ, a commercial software. A change in the expression of vinculin is expected to generate changes in the characteristics of both types of cells (non-cancerous and cancerous) such as altering their capacity of cell motility and altering the ability of cell adhesion. Results showed that vinculin expression for cancerous cells and non-cancerous cells were completely different. Overexpression of the protein in the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines prohibited the quantification of focal adhesions and promoted a different behavioral pattern during cell growth. For MCF-12A cells, focal adhesions points were quantified as well as the adhered area of each cell due to a localized expression of vinculin for this cell type. Results suggest that at longer periods of incubation non-cancerous cells were able to develop a larger number and bigger focal adhesion points in the substrates with higher modulus of elasticity.