By using interfacial self-assembly techniques, amphiphilic block copolymers are fabricated into dynamic bilayer films with the potential to control cell adhesion and force generation. The dynamic character of the bilayer film is tuned by the addition of a short hydrophobic homopolymer, which is thought to reduce the inter-leaflet friction. By using fluorescent recovery after photobleaching, lateral diffusivities were determined and found to have increased dynamic range over lipid membrane counterparts. To study cell interactions with these films, the block copolymers were labeled with a cell adhesive peptide ligand. By testing various mammalian cell types, we have found that specific cells are able to selectively discriminate between 'dynamic' (i.e., laterally-diffusive) films and 'static' films bearing the same amount of adhesion ligand.  Such films therefore present a novel platform to explore dynamic cell-surface interactions between tumor and nontumor cell lines, irrespective of surface biomarkers.

Laterally fluid surface to explore cell-substratum interactions

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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