Substrate stiffness has been demonstrated to be one of the key factors that influence cell behavior because cells constantly probe the mechanical properties of their environment by exerting traction forces and receive the resistance to the induced deformation.1 Therefore, besides the stiffness on the top surface, the depth of a material that cells are able to sense are essential in understanding cellular mechanosensitivity as well as designing cell carriers and biomedical devices. Poly(e-caprolactone) triacrylate (PCLTA) recently developed in our group is biodegradable and can be efficiently photo-crosslinked into hydrophobic networks with controlled mechanical properties.2  In this approach, we used two PCLTAs with distinct mechanical properties. A soft network of PCLTA2k was spin-coated on a stiff network of crosslinked PCLTA20k with different thickness and a mirror system was fabricated in the same way. Rat Schwann cell precursor line (SpL201) cells with the glial nature was used to demonstrate the dependence of cell spreading and proliferation on the film thickness. Besides the better support of SpL201 cells on stiffer substrate, the effective stiffness cells can respond was dependent on the thickness of the top layer. A graduate change of cell spreading and proliferation was found when the thickness of the top layer increased. A critical thickness of the film was required to completely suppress the influence from the base material and its value was higher for the softer networks.

Thickness sensing of nerve cells on hydrophobic polymer networks with varied mechanical properties

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.