(602f) How Does Liquid Crystalline Order Shape Collective Cell Behaviors?

Ordered environments are fruitful platforms for investigating collective behaviors. They mimic salient features of cell assemblies in vivo. A growing body of literature draws parallels between cell ordering and liquid crystals, where topological defects not only occur naturally, but also serve key biological functions. To systematically investigate how cells respond to patterns, precise control over cell arrangement is essential. In 2D, we have discovered that flat substrates with nematic order can induce global alignment of dense, spindle-like cells, thereby influencing cell organization and collective motion, resulting in alignment on millimeter-scale. Remarkably, single cells are not sensitive to the substrate’s anisotropy. Rather, the emergence of global nematic order is a collective phenomenon that requires both steric effects and molecular-scale anisotropy of the substrate. In 3D, by formulating disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) with short-chain polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA), we fabricate porous hydrogel scaffolds with fibrin-like morphologies that can direct cells’ initial attachment and subsequent interaction. The origin of this structure arises from a reaction-diffusion process, as PEGDA is depleted from the bulk and recruited to the surface of the DSCG as polymerization takes place. Additionally, we have innovated a continuous imaging platform tracking thousands of cells, yielding rich data set for analyzing cellular motility and protein dynamics. The flexibility of these platforms underscores the potential use of anisotropic hydrogels and substrates in addressing challenges related to cell encapsulation and as a model system to study the cell-environment reciprocity.