Abstract
Micropillar arrays are one of the tools that quantify the mechanical forces exerted by endothelial cells and any other adherent cell types. This chapter describes the fabrication and usage of the micropillars that reports spatial distribution of traction forces by endothelial cells. The fabrication begins with making a “master” pillar substrate using photolithography, followed by softlithography of the master with polydimethylsiloxane. The pillars can then be printed with an extracellular matrix protein in specific shape using stamp-off technique. Lastly, imaging of the micropillars with cells and the analysis of the traction force using Matlab-based software are described.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NIH 1R15GM135806-01.
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Chandurkar, M.K., Han, S.J. (2022). Subcellular Force Quantification of Endothelial Cells Using Silicone Pillar Arrays. In: Zhao, F., Leong, K.W. (eds) Vascular Tissue Engineering. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2375. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1708-3_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1708-3_19
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