Abstract
Nanoporous gold (np-Au) electrode coatings have shown improved neural electrophysiological recording fidelity in vitro, in part due to reduced surface coverage by astrocytes. This reduction in astrocytic spreading has been attributed to the influence of electrode nanostructure on focal adhesion (FA) formation. This study describes the development and use of a microfluidic flow cell for imposing controllable hydrodynamic shear on astrocytes cultured on gold surfaces of different morphologies, in order to study the influence of nanostructure on astrocyte adhesion strength as a function of np-Au electrode morphology. Astrocyte detachment (a surrogate for adhesion strength) monotonically increased as feature size was reduced from planar surfaces to np-Au, demonstrating that adhesion strength is dependent on nanostructure. Putative mechanisms responsible for this nanostructure-driven detachment phenomenon are also discussed.
Highlights
Controlling cellular responses to implanted materials has long been an important focus in biomaterial design [1,2,3]
The potential to control these functions without the use of chemical or pharmaceutical agents has motivated studies on cellular responses to material property modifications, namely substrate stiffness, surface chemistry, and topography at both the micro- and nano-scale [6,7]
Interfacial nanotopography has emerged as an important factor for influencing extracellular matrix (ECM) protein layer formation and subsequently, cell adhesion [13]
Summary
Controlling cellular responses to implanted materials has long been an important focus in biomaterial design [1,2,3]. Structural modifications on the material surface influence the adsorption of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, which affects integrin-ligand binding and the formation of adhesive complexes [4]. This in turn regulates the spreading, growth, migration, and differentiation of adhesive cells [5]. Astrocyte focal adhesion (FA) contact area and focal adhesion number exhibited nanostructure-dependent changes [22], with an increase in focal adhesion number on np-Au films with smaller ligament widths and a drastic decrease in focal adhesion contact area on films with larger feature sizes This suggests that different mechanisms guide focal adhesion formation on these nanostructure length scales. We employed live cell imaging to keep track of the number of cells detached from the surfaces as a result of increasing hydrodynamic shear imposed by fluidic flow and quantified by a computational model
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