Fig. 7: Remote cyclic tuning of # ligand inter-cluster edges reversibly regulates stem cell behaviors.

a Immunostained fluorescent images of paxillin co-stained with F-actin and nuclei (DAPI) of adherent stem cells after 24 h, 48 h, or 72 h of culturing in growth medium and RUNX2 co-stained with F-actin and nuclei after 72 h of culturing in differentiation medium on materials displaying a cyclically tunable # ligand inter-cluster edges. b Computation of the DAPI-positive cell density (n = 6–9 biological replicates; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001), focal adhesion number (n = 6 cells; ***p < 0.001), actin-positive cell area (n = 6 cells; ***p < 0.001), and nuclear/cytoplasmic intensity ratio of RUNX2 (n = 6 cells; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001) along with western-blot analysis of RUNX2 and ALP protein expression (normalized to GAPDH) of adherent stem cells. The employment and non-employment of a piece of permanent magnet (295 mT) above the materials were either switched or maintained every 24 h for up to 72 h (“NE.-NE.-NE.”, “NE.-E.-NE.”, “E.-NE.-E.”, and “E.-E.-E.”). Scale bars: 50 µm (confocal microscopy). Data are shown as the means ± standard errors. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA along with the Tukey–Kramer post hoc test. N.S. denotes no statistically significant difference. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.