title: Nanotopographic cell culture substrate: polymer-demixed nanotextured films under cell culture conditions.
abstract: Modulating physical cell culture environments via nanoscale substrate topographic modification has recently been of significant interest in regenerative medicine. Many studies have utilized a polymer-demixing technique to produce nanotextured films and showed that cellular adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation could be regulated by the shape and scale of the polymer-demixed nanotopographies. However, little attention has been paid to the topographic fidelity of the polymer-demixed films when exposed to cell culture conditions. In this brief article, two polymer-demixing systems were employed to assess topographic changes in polymer-demixed films after fibronectin (FN) extracellular matrix protein adsorption and after incubation in phosphate-buffered saline at 37°C. We showed that FN adsorption induced very small variations (<2 nm) to the polystyrene/polybromostyrene (PS/PBrS)-demixed nanoisland textures, not substantially altering the nanotopographies given by the polymer demixing. In addition, poly(L-lactic acid)/PS (PLLA/PS)-demixed nanoisland topographies using PLLA with M w=50×10(3) did not show notable degradation up to day 24.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln , Lincoln, Nebraska.
authors.forename: Jung Yul
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Siedlecki
authors.forename: Henry J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Donahue
keywords: cell culture; degradation; nanotopography; polymer demixing; protein adsorption