Controlling and measuring substrate stiffness for cell motility studies

Cell motility and differentiation is generally considered to be controlled by mostly chemical cues. However, recent evidence has shown that mechanical cues may be just as important. Here, we present a study to create patterned substrates that allow to test the hypothesis that cells prefer substrates of certain mechanical moduli and will migrate towards these substrates. In this context, we present a discussion of optimal methods to measure substrate moduli at the local level and compare different methods with respect to ease of implementation, data interpretation and reliability.