Orthogonal Morphological Feature Size and Density Gradients for Exploring Synergistic Effects in Biology

Abstract

Gradient surfaces enable rapid screening and high-throughput investigations in various fields, such as biology and tribology. A new method is described for the preparation of material-independent morphological gradients, in which the density and height of roughness features are varied along two orthogonal axes. A polystyrene-particle-density gradient was produced by a dip-coating process on titanium-oxide-coated silicon wafers. A controlled exposure to ultraviolet light enabled the generation of a particle-height gradient in the orthogonal direction. These gradients were replicated to generate material-independent morphology gradients. MC3T3 cell proliferation studies were performed on titanium-coated replicas and showed a higher cell density on the high-feature-density region of the gradient. The cell area coverage was found to increase with decreasing particle height.

Isatin thiosemicarbazone-blended polymer films for biomedical applications: surface morphology, characterisation and preliminary biological assessment

“…There is a large difference in hydrophobicity between the PMMA-only surfaces (surfaces A and C) and those where an isatin derivative has been added to PMMA (surfaces E and J), which is associated with a large difference in surface roughness (Ra) (p < 0.01). It should be highlighted at this point that rougher surfaces can be favourable towards cell proliferation or osseointegration 31,32 .…”

Amphiphile-Induced Anisotropic Colloidal Self-Assembly

“…The deposited colloidal particles can further serve as templates and shadow-or etching masks to create more complex surface nanostructures, used for example in photonics, [12][13][14][15] phononics, 16,17 electronics, 18,19 liquid repellency 20,21 or to control cell-surface interactions. 22,23 However, the tendency of spherical colloidal particles to assemble into hexagonal lattices limits the available structural motifs for such surface nanostructures.…”

“…These colloidal monolayers can be deposited onto a solid substrate, providing a strategy to create ordered nanoscale surface patterns in a simple and fast process over macroscopic dimensions. The deposited colloidal particles can further serve as templates and shadow or etching masks to create more complex surface nanostructures used, for example, in photonics, − phononics, , electronics, , and liquid repellency, , or to control cell–surface interactions. , However, the tendency of spherical colloidal particles to assemble into hexagonal lattices limits the available structural motifs for such surface nanostructures.…”

Roughness gradients on zirconia for rapid screening of cell‐surface interactions: Fabrication, characterization and application

“…The gradient approach has been successfully implemented by some authors to investigate the influence of roughness on osteoblast response, osteoclast resorption, and stem cell differentiation on several materials (polycaprolactone, epoxy resin, titanium, silicon, and hydroxyapatite among others) . However, to the best of the knowledge of the authors, it has never been applied to zirconia.…”

“…The gradient approach has been successfully implemented by some authors to investigate the influence of roughness on osteoblast response, osteoclast resorption, and stem cell differentiation on several materials (polycaprolactone, epoxy resin, titanium, silicon, and hydroxyapatite among others). [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] However, to the best of the knowledge of the authors, it has never been applied to zirconia. Besides, the aforementioned studies often limit the roughness analysis to the average roughness parameter (R a ), which is not sufficient to fully characterize surface topography.…”