Unique arrangement of bone matrix orthogonal to osteoblast alignment controlled by Tspan11-mediated focal adhesion assembly

During tissue construction, cells coordinate extracellular matrix (ECM) assembly depending on the cellular arrangement. The traditional understanding of the relationship between the ECM and cells is limited to the orientation-matched interaction between them. Indeed, it is commonly accepted that the bone matrix (collagen/apatite) is formed along osteoblast orientation. Nonetheless, our recent findings are contrary to the above theory; osteoblasts on nanogrooves organize formation of the bone matrix perpendicular to cell orientation. However, the precise molecular mechanisms underlying the orthogonal organization of bone matrix are still unknown. Here, we show that mature fibrillar focal adhesions (FAs) facilitate the perpendicular arrangement between cells and bone matrix. The osteoblasts aligned along nanogrooves expressed highly mature fibrillar FAs mediated by integrin clustering. Microarray analysis revealed that Tspan11, a member of the transmembrane tetraspanin protein family, was upregulated in cells on the nanogrooved surface compared with that in cells on isotropic, flat, or rough surfaces. Tspan11 silencing significantly disrupted osteoblast alignment and further construction of aligned bone matrix orthogonal to cell orientation. Our results demonstrate that the unique bone matrix formation orthogonal to cell alignment is facilitated by FA maturation. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first to show that FA assembly mediated by Tspan11 determines the direction of bone matrix organization.