Topography-dependent gene expression in migratory glioma cells. Homo sapiens

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. Overall design: 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