title: Interfacial study of cell adhesion to liquid crystals using widefield surface plasmon resonance microscopy.
abstract: Widefield surface plasmon resonance (WSPR) microscopy provides high resolution imaging of interfacial interactions. We report the application of the WSPR imaging system in the study of the interaction between keratinocytes and liquid crystals (LC). Imaging of fixed keratinocytes cultured on gold coated surface plasmon substrates functionalized with a thin film of liquid crystals was performed in air using a 1.45NA objective based system. Focal adhesion of the cells adhered to glass and LC were further studied using immunofluorescence staining of the vinculin. The imaging system was also simulated with 2×2 scattering matrix to investigate the optical reflection of the resonant plasmonic wave via the glass/gold/cell and glass/gold/LC/cell layers. WSPR imaging indicated that keratinocytes are less spread and formed distinct topography of cell-liquid crystal couplings when cultured on liquid crystal coated substrates. The simulation indicates that glass/LC shifted the surface plasmon excitation angle to 75.39° as compared to glass/air interface at 44°. The WSPR microcopy reveals that the cells remodelled their topography of adhesion at different interfaces.
authors.affiliation: Biosensor and Bioengineering Laboratory, MiNT-SRC Research Center, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia. fionasoon@gmail.com
authors.forename: Chin Fhong
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Soon
authors.forename: Seyed Ali
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Khaghani
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Youseffi
authors.forename: Nafarizal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nayan
authors.forename: Hashim
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saim
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Britland
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Blagden
authors.forename: Morgan Clive Thomas
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Denyer
mesh_terms: D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000166:cytology; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance; D013499:Surface Properties