title: Controlling cell attachment on contoured surfaces with self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiolates on gold.
abstract: This paper describes a method based on experimentally simple techniques--microcontact printing and micromolding in capillaries--to prepare tissue culture substrates in which both the topology and molecular structure of the interface can be controlled. The method combines optically transparent contoured surfaces with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiolates on gold to control interfacial characteristics; these tailored interfaces, in turn, control the adsorption of proteins and the attachment of cells. The technique uses replica molding in poly(dimethylsiloxane) molds having micrometer-scale relief patterns on their surfaces to form a contoured film of polyurethane supported on a glass slide. Evaporation of a thin (< 12 nm) film of gold on this surface-contoured polyurethane provides an optically transparent substrate, on which SAMs of terminally functionalized alkanethiolates can be formed. In one procedure, a flat poly(dimethylsiloxane) stamp was used to form a SAM of hexadecanethiolate on the raised plateaus of the contoured surface by contact printing hexadecanethiol [HS(CH2)15CH3]; a SAM terminated in tri(ethylene glycol) groups was subsequently formed on the bare gold remaining in the grooves by immersing the substrate in a solution of a second alkanethiol [HS(CH2)11(OCH2CH2)3OH]. Then this patterned substrate was immersed in a solution of fibronectin, the protein adsorbed only on the methyl-terminated plateau regions of the substrate [the tri(ethylene glycol)-terminated regions resisted the adsorption of protein]; bovine capillary endothelial cells attached only on the regions that adsorbed fibronectin. A complementary procedure confined protein adsorption and cell attachment to the grooves in this substrate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mrksich
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Dike
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Ingber
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Whitesides
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology; D005353:Fibronectins / Q000737:chemistry; D006046:Gold; D008832:Microchemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; D005353:Fibronectins; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds; C086974:hexadecanethiol; D006046:Gold