Fig. 6
From: The epithelial-mesenchymal transition and the cytoskeleton in bioengineered systems
Cellular adhesion on submicron topographies controls EMT/MET. a Primary human corneal epithelial cells ordinarily adopt compact, rounded morphologies. b Adhesion to grooved topographies with submicron spacing biases focal adhesions along grooves. c Epithelial cells subsequently orient and elongate along the groove direction, analogous to an EMT. Reproduced from [111]. d Monolayers of canine kidney epithelial cells (MDCK) migrate as multicellular strands (partial EMT) and individuals (complete EMT) on submicron grooved topographies. e Crosstalk of YAP and E-cadherin via WT1 regulates partial and complete EMT states. Redrawn from [113]. f, g Mesenchymal breast cancer cell lines on smooth gold surfaces exhibited elongated morphologies with minimal cytokeratin (red) and strong vimentin (green) expression. h, i. Mesenchymal breast cancer cell lines on textured gold surfaces exhibited compact, clustered morphologies with strong cytokeratin (red) and weak vimentin (green) expression, indicative of a mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition. Reproduced from [114]