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Biophysical properties of the microenvironment, including matrix elasticity and topography, are known to affect various cell behaviors; however, the specific role of each factor is unclear. In this study, fibroblast-derived matrix (FDM) was used as cell culture substrate and physically modified to investigate the influence of its biophysical property changes on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) behavior in vitro. These FDMs were physically modified by simply storing them at different temperatures: the one stored at 4°C, maintained its original properties, was considered natural FDM, whereas the ones stored at -20°C or -80°C, exhibited a distinct surface morphology, were considered physically modified FDM. Physical modification induced matrix fiber rearrangement in FDM, forming different microstructures on the surface as characterized by focused ion beam (FIB)-cryoSEM. A significant increase of matrix elasticity was found with physically modified FDMs as determined by atomic force microscopy. HUVEC and hMSC behaviors on these natural and physically modified FDMs were observed and compared with each other and with gelatin-coated coverslips. HUVECs showed a similar adhesion level on these substrates at 3 h, but exhibited different proliferation rates and morphologies at 24 h; HUVECs on natural FDM proliferated relatively slower and assembled to capillary-like structures (CLSs). It is observed that HUVECs assembled to CLSs on natural FDMs are independent on the exogenous growth factors and yet dependent on nonmuscle myosin II activity. This result indicates the important role of matrix mechanical properties in regulating HUVECs vascular morphogenesis. As for hMSCs multilineage differentiation, adipogenesis is improved on natural FDM that with lower matrix elasticity, while osteogenesis is accelerated on physically modified FDMs that with higher matrix elasticity, these results further confirm the crucial role of matrix elasticity on cell fate determination.

Extracellular matrices (ECM) obtained from in vitro-cultured cells have been given much attention, but its application in cardiac tissue engineering is still limited. This study investigates cardiomyogenic potential of fibroblast-derived matrix (FDM) as a novel ECM platform over gelatin or fibronectin, in generating cardiac cell lineages derived from H9c2 cardiomyoblasts. As characterized through SEM and AFM, FDM exhibits unique surface texture and biomechanical property. Immunofluorescence also found fibronectin, collagen, and laminin in the FDM. Cells on FDM showed a more circular shape and slightly less proliferation in a growth medium. After being cultured in a differentiation medium for 7 days, H9c2 cells on FDM differentiated into cardiomyocytes, as identified by stronger positive markers, such as α-actinin and cTnT, along with more elevated gene expression of Myl2 and Tnnt compared to the cells on gelatin and fibronectin. The gap junction protein connexin 43 was also significantly upregulated for the cells differentiated on FDM. A successive work enabled matrix stiffness tunable; FDM crosslinked by 2wt% genipin increased the stiffness up to 8.5 kPa, 100 times harder than that of natural FDM. The gene expression of integrin subunit α5 was significantly more upregulated on FDM than on crosslinked FDM (X-FDM), whereas no difference was observed for β1 expression. Interestingly, X-FDM showed a much greater effect on the cardiomyoblast differentiation into cardiomyocytes over natural one. This study strongly indicates that FDM can be a favorable ECM microenvironment for cardiomyogenesis of H9c2 and that tunable mechanical compliance induced by crosslinking further provides a valuable insight into the role of matrix stiffness on cardiomyogenesis.