Directional nanotopographic gradients: a high-throughput screening platform for cell contact guidance

Abstract

A novel approach was developed using PDMS-substrates with surface-aligned nanotopography gradients, varying unidirectional in amplitude and wavelength, for studying cell behavior with regard to adhesion and alignment. The gradients target more surface feature parameters simultaneously and provide more information with fewer experiments and are therefore vastly superior with respect to individual topography substrates. Cellular adhesion experiments on non-gradient aligned nanowrinkled surfaces displayed a linear relationship of osteoblast cell adhesion with respect to topography aspect ratio. Additionally, an aspect ratio of 0.25 was found to be most efficient for cell alignment. Modification of the surface preparation method allowed us to develop an approach for creating surface nanotopography gradients which innovatively provided a superior data collection with fewer experiments showing that 1) low amplitude with small wavenumber is best for osteoblast cell adhesion 2) indeed higher aspect ratios are favorable for alignment however only with features between 80–180 nm in amplitude and 450–750 nm in wavelength with a clear transition between adhesion and alignment efficiency and 3) disproved a linear relationship of cell adhesion towards aspect ratio as was found for single feature substrate analysis.

Rapid treatment of full‐thickness skin loss using ovine tendon collagen typeIscaffold with skin cells

“…The successful integration of an autologous tissue substitutes with surrounding native tissue after implantation depends on the immunogenic properties of the scaffold even though it demonstrates good biocompatibility (Lynn, Yannas, & Bonfield, ). Col‐I from different sources were shown to have a low immunogenic response to human (Zhou et al, ). Nevertheless, the presence of nonhelical domains, which are known as telopeptide in the collagen, extracted via chemical‐based extraction (acetic acid), are shown to raise immune response (Gorgieva & Kokol, ).…”

Double Linear Gradient Biointerfaces for Determining Two‐Parameter Dependent Stem Cell Behavior

“…A problem with altering the surface of a biomaterial is that often several parameters are altered at the same time and that specific combinations may affect cellular behavior more than the individual parameters would do themselves. To elucidate the influence of surface properties on cells, gradients are time/cost‐efficient tools compared to single substrate analysis of parameter combinations . Wettability‐induced cell responses combined with stiffness influences can provide deeper insights into surface parameter combination effects on cellular behavior at interfaces.…”

Peptide nanostructures on nanofibers for peripheral nerve regeneration

“…Nanofibers have received much attention due to their resemblance to the submicron architecture of fibrous proteins and higher surface area-to-volume ratio. Further, the aligned topography establishes focal contact guidance and stretches the cells along the fiber direction (Andalib, Dzenis, Donahue, & Lim, 2016;Jha et al, 2011;Lee & Arinzeh, 2011;Ray et al, 2017;Tamiello, Buskermolen, Baaijens, Broers, & Bouten, 2016;Zhou et al, 2015).…”

“…Nanofibers have received much attention due to their resemblance to the submicron architecture of fibrous proteins and higher surface area‐to‐volume ratio. Further, the aligned topography establishes focal contact guidance and stretches the cells along the fiber direction (Andalib, Dzenis, Donahue, & Lim, ; Jha et al, ; Lee & Arinzeh, ; Ray et al, ; Tamiello, Buskermolen, Baaijens, Broers, & Bouten, ; Zhou et al, ). In addition, aligned nanofibrous scaffolds have shown significant improvement in maintaining neural cell functions in vitro when compared with their random nanofiber counterparts.…”