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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biomaterials. 2010 Apr 18;31(20):5418–5426. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2010.03.045

Figure 1. Nanoscale topographic cues influence endothelial cell orientation and alignment.

Figure 1

HUVEC and HAEC cells representing both large diameter vein and arterial vessels were plated at a density of 10,000 cells/cm2 in 60 mm plates containing 6-pack polyurethane substrates with planar control surfaces and topography ranging from 400-4000 nm. After 24 hours, cells were fixed and stained with TRITC-phalloidin to label for filamentous actin (red) and DAPI for the nucleus (blue) to observe cell morphology. Representative images were taken with a Zeiss Axiovert 200 on planar (HUVEC panel A, HAEC panel C) and 4000 nm pitch (HUVEC panel B, HAEC panel D) at 40x magnification. Both HUVEC and HAEC cells exhibit a flattened, round morphology on the planar control. In contrast both endothelial cell-types demonstrate orientation with the underlying topography of ridges and grooves.