Cell migration is facilitated by the interaction of living cells and their local microenvironment. The local topography is one of the key factors regulating cell migration. Interaction between the surface topography and the cell behaviors is critical to understanding tissue development and regeneration. In this study, a dynamic mask photolithography technique has been utilized to fabricate a surface with graded micropillars. It has been demonstrated that the cells have been successfully guided to migrate from the sparse zone to the dense zone. The cell polarization angle has been characterized in both sparse zone and the dense zone. Compared to the dense zone, the cells in the sparse zone are more aligned along the direction of the micropillar spacing gradient, which enables the guided cell migration. Moreover, the effects of the micropillar spacing gradient, micropillar diameter, and micropillar height have been investigated in terms of the cell migration speed and cell spreading area. Finally, two issues significantly affecting the cell migration have been discussed: trapped cells between the micropillars and cell clusters.

中文翻译：

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引导细胞在梯度微柱基质上迁移

活细胞与其局部微环境的相互作用促进了细胞迁移。局部地形是调节细胞迁移的关键因素之一。表面形貌与细胞行为之间的相互作用对于理解组织发育和再生至关重要。在这项研究中，动态掩模光刻技术已被用来制造具有渐变微柱的表面。已经证明细胞已被成功地引导从稀疏区迁移到致密区。已经在稀疏区和稠密区中表征了细胞极化角。与密集区域相比，稀疏区域中的细胞沿微柱间距梯度的方向更对齐，这使引导的细胞能够迁移。此外，根据细胞迁移速度和细胞扩散面积，研究了微柱间距梯度，微柱直径和微柱高度的影响。最后，讨论了两个对细胞迁移有重大影响的问题：微柱和细胞簇之间的捕获细胞。