Bio-inspired soft polystyrene nanotube substrate for rapid and highly efficient breast cancer-cell capture

The softness of materials is very important in cellular processes, such as cell adhesion, spread, proliferation and differentiation. Using soft materials benefits many biological studies and applications, such as wound healing, tissue engineering and clinical surgery. However, in other areas, such as rare cancer-cell capture and isolation, the importance of the softness of materials has not yet been studied. Extracellular matrix suitable for cell contact and survival is formed from soft materials with specific molecules and nanostructures. Herein, we report a soft polystyrene nanotube substrate inspired by the cell microenvironment that achieves rapid and highly efficient breast cancer-cell capture from whole-blood samples with high cell viability by integrating the soft nature of polystyrene polymer with specific capture agents and surface structures. This study provides a potentially optimal candidate for a high-quality breast cancer-cell detection platform and will provide new prospects for designing cell-material interfaces for advanced cell-based biological studies and clinical applications in the future.