Plant-based scaffolds present many advantages over a variety of biomaterials. Recent studies explored their potential to be repopulated with human cells and thus highlight a growing interest for their use in tissue engineering or for biomedical applications. However, it is still unclear if these in vitro plant-based scaffolds can modify cell phenotype or affect cellular response to external stimuli. Here, we report the characterization of the mechano-regulation of melanoma SK-MEL-28 and prostate PC3 cells seeded on decellularized spinach leaves scaffolds, compared to cells deposited on standard rigid cell culture substrate, as well as their response to drug and radiation treatment. The results showed that YAP/TAZ signaling was downregulated, cellular morphology altered and proliferation rate decreased when cells were cultured on leaf scaffold. Interestingly, cell culture on vegetal scaffold also affected cellular response to external stress. Thus, SK-MEL-28 cells phenotype is modified leading to a decrease in MITF activity and drug resistance, while PC3 cells showed altered gene expression and radiation response. These findings shed lights on the decellularization of vegetal materials to provide substrates that can be repopulated with human cells to better reproduce a soft tissue microenvironment. However, these complex scaffolds mediate changes in cell behavior and in order to exploit the capability of matching physical properties of the various plant scaffolds to diverse physiological functionalities of cells and human tissue constructs, additional studies are required to better characterize physical and biochemical cell-substrate interactions.

中文翻译：

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与标准细胞培养模型相比，基于植物的支架改变了细胞对药物和辐射暴露的反应


与各种生物材料相比，植物支架具有许多优点。最近的研究探索了它们在人类细胞中重新填充的潜力，从而凸显了人们对它们在组织工程或生物医学应用中的应用日益浓厚的兴趣。然而，目前尚不清楚这些体外植物支架是否可以改变细胞表型或影响细胞对外部刺激的反应。在这里，我们报告了与沉积在标准刚性细胞培养基质上的细胞相比，接种在脱细胞菠菜叶支架上的黑色素瘤 SK-MEL-28 和前列腺 PC3 细胞的机械调节特征，以及它们对药物和放射治疗的反应。结果表明，当细胞在叶支架上培养时，YAP/TAZ信号被下调，细胞形态发生改变，增殖率下降。有趣的是，植物支架上的细胞培养也影响细胞对外部压力的反应。因此，SK-MEL-28 细胞表型发生改变，导致 MITF 活性和耐药性降低，而 PC3 细胞则显示出基因表达和放射反应的改变。这些发现揭示了植物材料的脱细胞化，以提供可以重新填充人体细胞的基质，从而更好地再现软组织微环境。然而，这些复杂的支架介导细胞行为的变化，为了利用各种植物支架的物理特性与细胞和人体组织结构的不同生理功能相匹配的能力，需要进行更多的研究来更好地表征物理和生化细胞基质互动。