Micropatterning of Poly (Ethylene Glycol)-Diacrylate (PEG-DA) Hydrogel by Soft-Photolithography for Analysis of Cell-Biomaterial Interactions

Abstract

Poly (ethylene glycol) hydrogel (PEG) micropatterns fabricated by photolithography and various other microfabrication techniques have been used as a platform to analyze cell-biomaterial interactions in cell culture studies. Numerous innovative techniques have been described about photolithography and the use of Poly (dimethyl siloxane) stamp (PDMS) based pressure moulding technique for the microfabrication of PEG hydrogel micropatterns. We herein this literature describe a simple and a versatile method for fabricating Poly (ethylene glycol) hydrogel-diacrylate (PEG-DA) hydrogel micropatterns using the ‘Soft-photolithography’ technique which is a combination of pressure moulding using a PDMS stamp and photolithography. Using this simple technique, PEG-DA hydrogel micropatterns were fabricated on a silicon substrate of varying dimensions from 40μm to 10μm within the same substrate. Such a three-dimensional microenvironment with varying sizes can serve as an excellent platform to study cell behaviour in culture. These PEG-DA hydrogel micropatterns can further be functionalized by adding a variety of biomolecular cues within the PEG-DA hydrogel matrix or these biomolecules can be patterned on the PEG-DA micropatterns after photopolymerization using micro-contact printing for analysis of cell-biomaterial interactions and tissue engineering purposes.