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Summary: Several actual developments in medical therapy are focussing on the potential of a surface‐dependent selection and proliferation of special cell types. For an improvement of biocompatibility it is interesting to understand the interactions between cells and material surfaces in order to create devices with the respective characteristics. In this paper the possibility to isolate three different tumor cells lines are studied: HEK293, RINm5f and KYM‐1. A procedure by means of plasma polymerization is demonstrated to create hydrophilic microstructures (precursor: AAc) on a hydrophobic (precursor: CHF3) substrate and shown to effectively select RINm5f cells. Moreover, by studying the interaction between culture media and deposited polymers, it is shown that Ca2+ ions and protein adsorption play a fundamental role in the cell‐substrate adhesion and proliferation.

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Summary: Poly(propylene) surfaces were modified by polymerization of acrylic acid using an RF plasma technique. Whereas a stable and reproducible hydrophilicity is obtained even after short treatment times, the thickness of the deposited layer, and thus the concentration of COOH functional groups per substrate surface area, increases with plasma exposure time. The modified‐poly(propylene) samples were exposed to aqueous solutions supersaturated with respect to CaCO3. Even though the polymer surfaces show a significant affinity for the adsorption of Ca2+ ions, the density of nucleation sites for calcite is reduced in comparison to untreated poly(propylene). This result can be explained by the special conditions in porous (“gelatinous”) growth media and high disorder provided by the plasma‐polymerized layers.AFM surface profile of a poly(propylene) surface (*) and film segments of plasma‐polymerized acrylic acid (**).imageAFM surface profile of a poly(propylene) surface (*) and film segments of plasma‐polymerized acrylic acid (**).

Die Plasmamaskentechnik ist ein Verfahren zur regioselektiven physikalisch‐chemischen Strukturierung von Massenkunststoffen im Mikrometerbereich, das prinzipiell auch halbkontinuierlich durchgeführt werden kann. Die damit herstellbaren funktionellen Oberflächenstrukturen auf polymeren Substraten sind besonders für die Verwendung als Biochips geeignet. Sie ermöglichen die Verwendung von niedrigpreisigen polymeren Kunststoffen als modifizierbare Substrate, die nach geeigneten biochemischen Ausrüstungen für analytische Verfahren in der medizinischen Diagnostik und pharmazeutischen Wirkstoffforschung eingesetzt werden und die die zunehmende Verwendung des Hochdurchsatzscreening (HTS) mit Mikroarrays für Genomics und Proteomics sowie die Entwicklung von Zellbiochips unterstützen.