Circle of Life

Circle of life

Alternative titles – Wheel of time/Life is a donut/Fibroblast on a circular micropattern

Liisa Blowes

In this image we have a young healthy fibroblast, cell that produces extracellular matrix for connective tissues and supporting organ structures, on a circular micropattern. By using the engineered micropatterns we can manipulate the size of the cells and study how the cell shape and size influence the cell behaviour. Cell size influences the organisation of the cytoskeleton (green), and the size and shape nuclei (blue) and nucleoli (red, structures within the nucleus that produce the cells protein factories, the ribosomes). 

Over a lifetime cells keep multiplying to replace injured and dying cells but eventually our cells start showing signs of aging. Older cells that are no longer able to replicate themselves are called senescent /sɪˈnes.ənt/ cells and they have a very different appearance in comparison to the young, proliferating cells. For example, old fibroblasts are much larger than young fibroblasts and this influences the organisation of the cytoskeleton (green, denser fibres), and the size and shape nuclei (blue, larger nuclei) and number of nucleoli (red). With micropatterned substrates we can investigate which part of the changed behaviour of old fibroblasts is dictated by their increase in size.