Nanoimprinting of Topographical and 3D Cell Culture Scaffolds

Abstract

The extracellular matrix exhibits several nanostructures such as fibers, filaments, nanopores and ridges that can be mimicked by topographical and 3D substrates for cell and tissue cultures for an environment closer to in vivo conditions. This review summarizes and discusses a growing number of reports employing nanoimprint lithography to obtain such scaffolds. The different nanoimprint lithography methods as well as their advantages and disadvantages are described and special attention is paid to cell culture applications. We discuss the impact of materials, nanotopography, size, geometry, fabrication method, and cell type on growth guidance and differentiation. We present examples of cell guidance, inhibition of cell growth, cell pinning and engineering of 3D cell sheets or spheroids. As current applications are limited and not systematically compared for various cell types, this review only suggests promising substrates for particular applications. Future possible directions are also proposed in which this field may proceed.

Applications of nanoimprint lithography/hot embossing: a review

“…The technique was rapidly developed when UV-curable resists were exploited owing to its ease in imprint, capability of low temperature process, inertia to most chemicals and high quality in optical transmission [30,31,[135][136][137][138][139][140]. One of the early reports is about nanoimprint in UV-curable SU-8 for phase gratings [27,128,129,132] and nanofluidic channels via a reversal procedure [141,142], respectively.…”

“…In the past two decades, a substantial amount of work have been conducted in solving these technical difficulties [2,14,[23][24][25][26][27][28]. Broad applications of NIL have been witnessed, particularly in the manufacture of nanostructures [29][30][31][32], nanodevices [33,34], optic components [35,36], highdensity quantized magnetic disks [37] and Si MOSFETs [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52], etc. This paper will review some of the applications by NIL in these areas through several examples.…”

An academic, clinical and industrial update on electrospun, additive manufactured and imprinted medical devices

“…The patterned elastomeric mould is coated with a self-assembling material and applied to a planar substrate to transfer a pattern onto its surface [93]. NIL employs thermo-mechanical embossing under defined temperatures and loading to induce the physical deformation of a material, in order to transfer the topographical features of a master template [94,95] into a thermoplastic substrate.…”

“…Step and flash imprint lithography uses direct photopolymerisation of a liquid phase material through a transparent mould [95]. Advancements in engineering now allow accurate printing of topographical features down to 5 nm Historically, NIL has been a key technology for investigating the role of topographical modification on cell adhesion and how micro-and nano-scale features can influence cellular function.…”

Nanoimprint Lithography: Toward Functional Photonic Crystals

“…They are hardened during the UV exposure by photo-initiated polymerization [35]. In addition to conventional resists, NIL can also be used for direct imprinting of active and functional materials such as biological materials [36], sol-gel precursors of semiconductor oxides [37], quantum dots [38], metals [39][40][41], conjugated polymers [42][43][44], and block copolymers [45].…”