title: Proliferation of aligned mammalian cells on laser-nanostructured polystyrene.
abstract: Biomaterial surface chemistry and nanoscale topography are important for many potential applications in medicine and biotechnology as they strongly influence cell function, adhesion and proliferation. In this work, we present periodic surface structures generated by linearly polarized KrF laser light (248 nm) on polystyrene (PS) foils. These structures have a periodicity of 200-430 nm and a depth of 30-100 nm, depending on the angle of incidence of the laser beam. The changes in surface topography and chemistry were analysed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), advancing water contact-angle measurements, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy using an attenuated total reflection device (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). We show that the surface laser modification results in a significantly enhanced adhesion and proliferation of human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293) compared to the unmodified polymer foil. Furthermore, we report on the alignment of HEK-293 cells, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-K1) cells and skeletal myoblasts along the direction of the structures. The results indicate that the presence of nanostructures on the substrates can guide cell alignment along definite directions, and more importantly, in our opinion, that this alignment is only observed when the periodicity is above a critical periodicity value that is cell-type specific.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rebollar
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Frischauf
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olbrich
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Peterbauer
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hering
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Preiner
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hinterdorfer
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Romanin
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heitz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D016466:CHO Cells; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002460:Cell Line; D016764:Cell Polarity; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology*; D007834:Lasers; D008422:Materials Testing; D032446:Myoblasts; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010507:Periodicity; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011137:Polystyrenes