Tissue engineering focuses on cell-biomaterial surface interactions with the aim of studying the relationship between material surface properties and tissue regeneration. This process is dependent on many physio-chemical surface properties of the underlying material. It has been demonstrated by nature that the mechanical environment influences cellular adsorption. In this talk, we use nanopatterned surfaces fabricated by polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-block-PMMA) diblock copolymers to investigate the cell-biomaterial surface interactions. A neutral air/substrate wetting condition allows us to fabricate vertically oriented PS-block-PMMA cylindrical microdomain structures. The PS cylinders are then cross-linked by UV and the PMMA component can be removed by acetic acid, creating PS “pillars”. Our results of PS nanopillars (the height of 20 nm and spacing of 30 – 250 nm) were created using Lamellae-forming PS-block-PMMA, which was blended with a low molecular weight PMMA homopolymer to enhance the ordering kinetics and further change the morphology into cylinders. The resulting films inhibited fibroblast adsorption/proliferation and platelet adhesion, while cells expressed greater surface areas on “flat” PS control surfaces. We will discuss the relationship between the geometric parameters of nanopatterned surfaces against model mammalian cells.

Cell-biomaterial viability investigation via self-assembled nanopatterns of block copolymer films

ACS Spring 2022

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