Complex and functional artificial tissues consisting of multiple types of cells are generally required. However, few reliable methods to control the cellular distribution have been developed. Our present study has revealed how the core-shell type distribution is formed in NIH3T3/MIN6 spheroids. We demonstrated that focal adhesion kinase signal was the key for the cell localization in the spheroids. Moreover, we succeeded in regulating their distribution based on the mechanism revealed in the present study. These novel findings will provide a new approach for constructing artificial tissues with proper cell arrangement, which would be suitable for tissue engineering.
Keywords: focal adhesion kinase; haptotaxis; spheroids; tissue engineering.