Cell alignment by smectic liquid crystal elastomer coatings with nanogrooves

Abstract

Control of cells behavior through topography of substrates is an important theme in biomedical applications. Among many materials used as substrates, polymers show advantages since they can be tailored by chemical functionalization. Fabrication of polymer substrates with nano‐ and microscale topography requires processing by lithography, microprinting, etching, and so forth. In this work, we introduce a different approach based on anisotropic elastic properties of polymerized smectic A (SmA) liquid crystal elastomer (LCE). When the SmA liquid crystal coating is deposited onto a substrate with planar alignment of the molecules, it develops nanogrooves at its free surface. After photopolymerization, these nanogrooves show an excellent ability to align human dermal fibroblasts over large areas. The alignment quality is good for both bare SmA LCE substrates and for substrates coated with fibronectin. The SmA LCE nano‐topographies show a high potential for tissue engineering.

Cell instructive Liquid Crystalline Networks for myotube formation

“…Starting from simple flat LCN materials, we demonstrated that C2C12 myoblasts grow with a unidirectional alignment that reflects the molecular arrangement and the overall orientational degree can be increased by modulating the polymer stiffness (Martella et al, 2019d). Later, other research groups demonstrated that LCN self-assembled structures can be exploited for the alignment of different cell lines due a spontaneous surface roughness/pattern formation (Turiv et al, 2020;Babakhanova et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2020). However, the capability of LCNs in inducing muscle differentiation has not yet been deeply investigated and this study results mandatory since the process of cell alignment and their fusion/differentiation are regulated by different biological processes.…”

Cradle-to-cradle: designing biomaterials to fit as truly biomimetic cell scaffolds– a review

“…Martella et al [108] studied liquid crystalline polymeric films with different alignment to guide myoblast cell line (C2C12) (Figure 4(a)). Babakhanova et al [109] showed human dermal fibroblast cell alignment on smectic -A liquid crystal elastomer coated aligned substrates which have periodic nanogrooves. We previously reported that cells can sense the anisotropy of a LCE scaffold and without using any external stimuli cell orientation and alignment can be promoted in a 3D environment (Figures 4(b) and 5) [72,86].…”

Translating 2D Director Profile to 3D Topography in a Liquid Crystal Polymer

“…And morphing of an LCP coating surface, ranging from regular topographic stripes [19][20][21] to irregular fingerprint-like textures, reach out to applications in controlled tribology, particles mitigation [22] and cell growth. [23] In their molten state, LCPs exhibit anisotropic flow properties which is well explored in injection molding of thin-wall miniaturized objects, 3D/4D printing of actuators [24,25] and the formation of fiber arrays at interfaces. [26] In this work, we explore the flow anisotropy of a side-chain LCP to control the formation, size, and directionality of topographic structures that develop under electrohydrodynamic actuation.…”