Abstract
Micropatterning is becoming a powerful tool for studying morphogenetic and differentiation processes of cells. Here we describe a new micropatterning technique, which we refer to as microcontact peeling. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates were treated with oxygen plasma, and the resulting hydrophilic layer of the surface was locally peeled off through direct contact with a peeling stamp made of aluminum, copper, or silicon. A hydrophobic layer of PDMS could be selectively exposed only at the places of the physical contact as revealed by water contact angle measurements and angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which thus enabled successful micropatterning of cells with micro-featured peeling stamps. This new micropatterning technique needs no procedure for directly adsorbing proteins to bare PDMS in contrast to conventional techniques using a microcontact printing stamp. Given the several unique characteristics, the present technique based on the peel-off of inorganic materials may become a useful option for performing cell micropatterning.
Highlights
Cell micropatterning is a technique for spatial control of the adhesive regions for individual cells and/or cell colonies
The purpose here is to demonstrate that an oxygen-rich layer grown on a PDMS surface is transferred onto an aluminum material through direct physical contact, which allows for local modification of the surface property
An aluminum sheet was placed in conformal contact with and removed away from the highly hydrophilized surface, which resulted in an increase in contact angle at the PDMS surface to 96 6 7u and returned to a hydrophobic state
Summary
Cell micropatterning is a technique for spatial control of the adhesive regions for individual cells and/or cell colonies. This artificial control enables highly reproducible experiments and has provided many interesting findings in cell biology [1]. Microcontact printing (mCPr) has become one of the most popular [1], [12]. For mCPr, a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp with desired microfeatures is used to print extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins onto particular areas of cell culture substrates [13], [14]. Technical alternatives that avoid the protein adsorption are expected to appear to diversify the approach to micropatterning for a variety of proteins
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