SPATIAL-DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALIAN-CELLS DICTATED BY MATERIAL SURFACE-CHEMISTRY

Anisotropic cell culture surfaces patterned with amino- and alkylsilan es can guide cell distribution and provide an approach to study import ant processes involved in tissue engineering, such as cell attachment and locomotion. By combining photolithographic and silane coupling tec hniques, glass coverslips were patterned with either n-octadecyldimeth ylchlorosilane (ODDMS) or dimethyldichlorosilane (DMS), and N-(2-amino ethyl)3-aminopropyl-trimethoxysilane (EDS). The alkylsilanes, theoreti cally, have similar methyl and methylene groups exposed at the surface but different structures, with DMS being amorphous and ODDMS ordered. Neuroblastoma cells, osteosarcoma cells, and fibroblasts plated on su rfaces patterned with EDS/ODDMS and EDS/DMS specifically localized on the EDS regions, but distributed randomly on ODDMS/DMS patterned surfa ces. The preferential assembly of cells onto EDS regions did not depen d on the structure of the adjacent alkylsilane regions and was a time- dependent process. Angle-dependent x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (X PS) and contact angle measurements indicated that EDS was immobilized on glass as a fractional hydrophilic monolayer, and ODDMS and DMS were bound as patchy amorphous hydrophobic multilayers. Neither surface co verage nor thickness of the overlayer seemed to be as important as sur face chemistry, or charge, in guiding mammalian cell distribution. The se results are consistent with the concept that mammalian cells attach to and are guided by positively charged surfaces. (C) 1994 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.