Figure 35.

Cells receive stimuli from their surroundings, such as small molecules (1), the physical (i.e., surface topography, porosity, stiffness, elasticity etc.) (2) and (bio)chemical (2) and surface (bio)chemical (3) properties of a material, and produce a response via signaling pathways. The pathways can, in turn, lead to the production of transcription enhancers, such as transcription factors (4) that enable the expression of certain genes (5). This gene expression can lead to different cell phenotypes (6) such as proliferation, differentiation, or cell death.