Curvature is a geometric feature widely observed in the epithelia and critical to the performance of fundamental biological functions. Understanding curvature-related biophysical phenomena remains challenging partly owing to the difficulty of quantitatively tuning and measuring curvatures of interfacing individual cells. In this study, we prepared confluent wild-type Madin–Darby canine kidney cells on a torus structure presenting positive, zero, and negative Gaussian curvatures with a tubule diameter of 2–7 cells and quantified the mechanobiological characteristics of individual cells. Cells on the torus surface exhibited topological sensing ability both as an individual cell and collective cell organization. Both cell bodies and nuclei, adapted on the torus, exhibited local Gaussian curvature-dependent preferential orientation. The cells on the torus demonstrated significant adjustment in the nuclear area and exhibited asymmetric nuclear position depending on the local Gaussian curvature. Moreover, cells on top of the torus, where local Gaussian curvature is near zero, exhibited more sensitive morphological adaptations than the nuclei depending on the Gaussian curvature gradient. Furthermore, the spatial heterogeneity of intermediate filament proteins related to mechanoresponsive expression of the cell body and nucleus, vimentin, keratin and lamin A, revealed local Gaussian curvature as a key factor of cellular adaptation on curved surfaces.

曲率是在上皮细胞中广泛观察到的几何特征，并且对基本生物学功能的表现至关重要。部分由于归因于定量调整和测量与单个细胞相交的曲率的困难，所以了解与曲率有关的生物物理现象仍然具有挑战性。在这项研究中，我们准备了一个融合的野生型Madin-Darby犬肾细胞，其环状结构呈现高斯曲率正，零和负，小管直径为2-7个细胞，并量化了单个细胞的力学生物学特性。环形表面上的细胞既表现出单个细胞又表现出集体细胞的组织结构，显示出拓扑感知能力。细胞体和细胞核都适应于圆环，表现出局部的高斯曲率依赖性优先取向。圆环上的细胞显示出核区域的显着调节，并根据局部高斯曲率显示出不对称的核位置。此外，取决于高斯曲率梯度，局部高斯曲率接近零的环面顶部的细胞显示出比原子核更敏感的形态适应。此外，与细胞体和细胞核，波形蛋白，角蛋白和层粘连蛋白A的机械响应性表达有关的中间丝蛋白的空间异质性表明局部高斯曲率是细胞在曲面上适应的关键因素。根据高斯曲率梯度，与原子核相比，它们表现出更敏感的形态适应。此外，与细胞体和细胞核，波形蛋白，角蛋白和层粘连蛋白A的机械响应性表达有关的中间丝蛋白的空间异质性表明局部高斯曲率是细胞在曲面上适应的关键因素。根据高斯曲率梯度，与原子核相比，它们表现出更敏感的形态适应。此外，与细胞体和细胞核，波形蛋白，角蛋白和层粘连蛋白A的机械响应性表达有关的中间丝蛋白的空间异质性表明局部高斯曲率是细胞在曲面上适应的关键因素。