TY - JOUR U1 - Wissenschaftlicher Artikel A1 - Sales, Adria A1 - Picart, Catherine A1 - Kemkemer, Ralf T1 - Age-dependent migratory behavior of human endothelial cells revealed by substrate microtopography JF - Experimental cell research : ECR N2 - Cell migration is part of many important in vivo biological processes and is influenced by chemical and physical factors such as substrate topography. Although the migratory behavior of different cell types on structured substrates has already been investigated, up to date it is largely unknown if specimen's age affects cell migration on structures. In this work, we investigated age-dependent migratory behavior of human endothelial cells from young (≤ 31 years old) and old (≥ 60 years old) donors on poly(dimethylsiloxane) microstructured substrates consisting of well-defined parallel grooves. We observed a decrease in cell migration velocity in all substrate conditions and in persistence length perpendicular to the grooves in cells from old donors. Nevertheless, in comparison to young cells, old cells exhibited a higher cell directionality along grooves of certain depths and a higher persistence time. We also found a systematic decrease of donor age dependent responses of cell protrusions in orientation, velocity and length, all of them decreased in old cells. These observations lead us to hypothesize a possible impairment of actin cytoskeleton network and affected actin polymerization and steering systems, caused by aging. KW - endothelial cells KW - microtopography KW - aging KW - migration KW - protrusions Y1 - 2019 SN - 0014-4827 SS - 0014-4827 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexcr.2018.10.008 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexcr.2018.10.008 VL - 374 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 11 S1 - 11 PB - Elsevier ER -