Recently I read a paper talking about how cytoskeleton affects the function of bone marrow derived late EPCs. In this paper, late EPCs were seeded onto plates coated without any ECM or with different ECMs (fibronectin, collagen and laminin) to evaluate the cell adhesion property. The results showed that plastic surface had most cells attached. So the question just popped into my mind: What is the point of coating the culture dish?
Dear Youning,
The plastic adherence of the EPCs would possibly be because of the components in the serum which would support plastic adherence.There is also a high possibility that the EPCs secrete some ECM themselves for to support their adherence.
An ECM precoated plate will in most cases will promote their quick adherence for the efficient growth of endothelial progenitors.
I have not worked with EPC, but cell adhesion is not the only important property. For EPC, one could test cell fate, plasiticity of cell differentiation etc on different coated plates--correct? Coated plates strongly affect interactions between cell surface proteins and the ECM. These interactions can seriously change cell phenotype. For e.g. certain Tumor cells (on plastic plates), die when exposed to radiation. But the same cells are resistant to radiation on fibronectin coated plates!. Hope this helps
- Badges
- Science topic