Abstract
We report the design and fabrication by laser direct writing via two photons polymerization of innovative hierarchical structures with cell-repellency capability. The structures were designed in the shape of “mushrooms”, consisting of an underside (mushroom’s leg) acting as a support structure and a top side (mushroom’s hat) decorated with micro- and nanostructures. A ripple-like pattern was created on top of the mushrooms, over length scales ranging from several µm (microstructured mushroom-like pillars, MMP) to tens of nm (nanostructured mushroom-like pillars, NMP). The MMP and NMP structures were hydrophobic, with contact angles of (127 ± 2)° and (128 ± 4)°, respectively, whereas flat polymer surfaces were hydrophilic, with a contact angle of (43 ± 1)°. The cell attachment on NMP structures was reduced by 55% as compared to the controls, whereas for the MMP, a reduction of only 21% was observed. Moreover, the MMP structures preserved the native spindle-like with phyllopodia cellular shape, whereas the cells from NMP structures showed a round shape and absence of phyllopodia. Overall, the NMP structures were more effective in impeding the cellular attachment and affected the cell shape to a greater extent than the MMP structures. The influence of the wettability on cell adhesion and shape was less important, the cellular behavior being mainly governed by structures’ topography.
Highlights
One of the major challenges in bioengineering is to develop technological approaches that provide maximum control over cellular adhesion [1]
We demonstrate a simple, single-step method based on laser direct writing via two photons polymerization (LDW via TPP) of a photopolymerizable material for the fabrication of innovative hierarchical structures to act against the adhesion of glial cells
We addressed the roles of the nano- and microstructuring and of the wettability of the mushroom-like pillars (MMP) and nanostructured mushroom-like pillars (NMP) hierarchical structures in preventing cellular adhesion
Summary
One of the major challenges in bioengineering is to develop technological approaches that provide maximum control over cellular adhesion [1]. Cell-repellent surfaces are useful in cell-based biosensing for drug delivery systems, as well as for biomedical implants and tissue engineering [1]. A key strategy for controlling the cellular attachment is related to the fact that all cell types are influenced by spatial elements (geometry and size) of cell culture substrates. Cells are influenced by the width, spacing, and feature depth of these substrates [2]. A broad range of micro and nanopatterns in the form of grooves, pillars, cones, channels, and other micro/nano-geometries have been developed for controlling the cellular attachment [3,4,5].
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