Control of cell adhesion and spreading by spatial microarranged PEO-like and pdAA domains

Microstructured surfaces are widely used in cell culture experiments to understand the fundamentals of cell-material interactions by a spatial control of cell adhesion and spreading. Recent studies have documented that both substrate chemistry and topography are tightly correlated to cell behaviours. For this reason a wide range of techniques have been explored for obtaining in a simple and cheap way reproducible patterned substrates. This paper describes how to produce micropattemed substrates by a spatial microarrangment of chemically different domains, produced by plasma deposition. Cell-repulsive zones, obtained by plasma deposited PolyethyleneOxide-like (PEO-like) coating, were alternated with cell-adhesive tracks, namely plasma deposited Acrylic Acid (pdAA) films. Time lapse experiments demonstrated that such patterns, suitable to exert chemical and topographical constraints for cell-adhesion, can also support migration of cells inside the produced pattern. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.