Cell orientation gradients on an inverse opal substrate.
The generation of cell gradients is critical for understanding many biological systems and realizing the unique functionality of many implanted biomaterials. However, most previous work can only control the gradient of cell density and this has no effect on the gradient of cell orientation, which has an important role in regulating the functions of many connecting tissues. Here, we report on a simple stretched inverse opal substrate for establishing desired cell orientation gradients. It was demonstrated that tendon fibroblasts on the stretched inverse opal gradient showed a corresponding alignment along with the elongation gradient of the substrate. This "random-to-aligned" cell gradient reproduces the insertion part of many connecting tissues, and thus, will have important applications in tissue engineering.
†State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
Jie
J
Lu
†State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
Xin
X
Zou
†State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
Ze
Z
Zhao
†State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
Zhongde
Z
Mu
†State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.|‡Laboratory of Environment and Biosafety Research Institute of Southeast University in Suzhou, Suzhou 215123, China.
Yuanjin
Y
Zhao
†State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.|‡Laboratory of Environment and Biosafety Research Institute of Southeast University in Suzhou, Suzhou 215123, China.
Zhongze
Z
Gu
D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D008422:Materials Testing; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D051381:Rats; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D012822:Silicon Dioxide
biomaterial; cell gradient; cell orientation; colloidal crystal; inverse opal