Effect of In Vitro Formed Fibrillar Fibronectin on Fibroblast Cellular Migration

Fibronectin (FN) is an important adhesive extracellular matrix protein. It forms a fibrillar matrix on cell surface which controls cell morphology, adhesion, migration and proliferation. This study aimed to analyze the effect of in vitro cell-free formed fibrillar fibronectin with different morphologies on mouse fibroblasts L929 cells migration. To evaluate fibrils morphology on cell function, fibroblast L929 were cultured on surface pre-coated with FN and FN fibrils at concentration of 0.25 and 0.75 mg/mL at 4 °C overnight, then cell migration assay were performed. Migration speed of cells monolayers grown on different fibronectin surfaces was measured by using snapshot pictures with a regular inverted microscope at 0, 12, 48 and 72 h. Our cell-free FN fibrillogenesis indicated that at different concentrations, fibronectin organized into various structural matrix. Our data showed that large fibronectin fibrils decreased the rate of cell migration while small fibronectin fibrils (0.25 mg/mL) did not, compared with native plasma fibronectin. These data demonstrate that there is a strong relationship between structure and function of fibronectin. Taken together, our data draws new attention towards controlling biological function of fibronectin by its fibrillar structure.