Topography-dependent gene expression in migratory glioma cells

The goal of this experiment was to compare the gene expression of glioma cells migrating on substrates of different topographies and to determine a migration-associated gene profile. Human malignant glioma U251MG cells were cultured on highly-aligned versus randomly-oriented electrospun nanofibers of poly-caprolactone. Cells migrated actively on aligned nanofibers but motility was very restricted on randomly-oriented fibers. Results of gene expression profiling indicated upregulation of a JAK/STAT signature in actively migrating glioma cells. Total RNA was extracted from 3 independent cultures of U251 glioma cells cultured on aligned versus random nanofibers and applied to Affymetrix HG-U133 plus 2 chips. Analysis of gene expression was used to determine a gene-signature correlated with different substrate topography