It has been well documented that cell behavior, in the form of growth, movement,

and metabolism, is closely linked to the shape of the cell.1101' 102] The effects of adding

forces and changing the tension on a cell have shown significant changes in the

biochemistry of the cell.1103] Several cell types also align along lines of principle strain

with external loading. 13, 104] Kato et al. showed that endothelial cells, when patterned on

thin strips of adhesive regions that caused endothelial cells to become elongated,

exhibited a decrease in mRNA expression for vascular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1)

and a higher mRNA expression for intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1).[102]

Topography has been shown to alter cell shape, fibronectin mRNA level and stability,

and the secretion of ECM by human fibroblasts.1101l

 In many cases, the shape of the cell is widely spread out, especially when

lamellipods extend in multiple directions. This makes quantification of cell response to

texture or chemistry difficult by simply looking at the outline of a cell. One approach has

been to examine the shape of the nucleus of a cell to elucidate the prevailing cytoskeleton

arrangement within the cell.1101 Ingber's group as well as others have demonstrated that

the nucleus' shape is indeed directly "hard-wired" such that changes in surface adhesion

can affect the shape and orientation of the nucleus.[105] They examined bovine

endothelial cells after attachment to a substrate, and pulled on them with pipets coated

with adhesion molecules and found that as the cytoplasm stretches, the shape and

orientation of the ECs change from round to elongated along the stress.

 As medical technology and surgical procedures improves, the need for effective

biomaterials becomes greater. The ability of a non-native material to mimic the

properties and functions of the tissue it is replacing is crucial to the success of the