Towards modular engineering of cell signalling: Topographically-textured microparticles induce osteogenesis via activation of canonical hedgehog signalling

Polymer microparticles possess great potential as functional building blocks for advanced bottom-up engineering of complex tissues. Tailoring the three-dimensional architectural features of culture substrates has been shown to induce osteogenesis in mesenchymal stem cells in vitro, but the molecular mechanisms underpinning this remain unclear. This study proposes a mechanism linking the activation of Hedgehog signalling to the osteoinductive effect of surface-engineered, topographically-textured polymeric microparticles. In this study, mesenchymal progenitor C3H10T1/2 cells were cultured on smooth and dimpled poly(D,l-lactide) microparticles to assess differences in viability, cellular morphology, proliferation, and expression of a range of Hedgehog signalling components and osteogenesis-related genes. Dimpled microparticles induced osteogenesis and activated the Hedgehog signalling pathway relative to smooth microparticles and 2D-cultured controls without the addition of exogenous biochemical factors. We observed upregulation of the osteogenesis markers Runt-related transcription factor2 (Runx2) and bone gamma-carboxyglutamate protein 2 (Bglap2), as well as the Hedgehog signalling components, glioma associated oncogene homolog 1 (Gli1), Patched1 (Ptch1), and Smoothened (Smo). Treatment with the Smo antagonist KAAD-cyclopamine confirmed the involvement of Smo in Gli1 target gene activation, with a significant reduction in the expression of Gli1, Runx2 and Bglap2 (p ≤ 0.001) following KAAD-cyclopamine treatment. Overall, our study demonstrates the role of the topographical microenvironment in the modulation of Hedgehog signalling, highlighting the potential for tailoring substrate topographical design to offer cell-instructive 3D microenvironments. Topographically-textured microparticles allow the modulation of Hedgehog signalling in vitro without adding exogenous biochemical agonists, thereby eliminating potential confounding artefacts in high-throughput drug screening applications.