Fig. 1.

Control of cell geometry and cytoskeletal organization in micropatterned cells. (A) In unpatterned cells, different components of the cytoskeleton [here, FAs (red; phosphotyrosine antibody), MTs (green; tubulin antibody), F-actin bundles (blue; phalloidin)] overlap spatially throughout the cell thus complicate the analysis of their mutual orientations or dynamic processes such as MT guidance. (B) In contrast, in cells micropatterned on triangular islands, the cytoskeleton is spatially disentangled, with FAs located exclusively near the vertices of the triangle. Scale bars: 10 µm. (C) Substrates for cell patterning were prepared by wet etching (Kandere-Grzybowska et al., 2007; Kandere-Grzybowska et al., 2005; Kandere-Grzybowska et al., 2010; Mahmud et al., 2009; Klajn et al., 2004) using a hydrogel stamp to etch an array of microscopic islands in an e-beam evaporated, 35 nm gold layer supported by a 10 nm titanium adhesion layer on glass. The unetched gold was protected with a bioresistant SAM of HS(CH₂)₁₁(OCH₂CH₂)₆OH, and the optically transparent islands were typically coated with cell-adhesion-promoting fibronectin. When the cells were plated, they spread on the islands and assumed their shapes.