Abstract Endothelial cell attachment to porous substrates via focal adhesions is initially affected by pore spacing and not absolute porosity. Maturation of endothelial monolayers via cell-cell interactions occurred over the same time course regardless of substrate porosity, pore size and contact area. Cell-matrix interactions at…

Background Focal adhesions occur in 2D cell cultures as substrates apply large forces on cells. Previous experiments showed that focal adhesions formed on TCP and on non-porous SiO2 membranes but that less formed on 3.0µm-pore SiO2 porous membranes and even…

Background The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the formation of gap junctions between co-cultured HUVEC and ADSC across SiO2 membranes. Gap junctions are specialized intercellular connections through which nutrients and small molecules can be transported. HUVEC will be stained with CFDA (green) and ADSC will be stained…