Ultrathin Metal Films with Defined Topographical Structures as In Vitro Cell Culture Platforms for Unveiling Vascular Cell Behaviors

Abstract

Implanted material surfaces make direct contact with body tissues to work on its own purpose. Therefore, studies of the surface properties of implantable materials that determine cell fate are very important for successful implantation. Although numerous studies have addressed the relationship between cells and material surfaces, nonmetallic surfaces and metallic surfaces likely produce different cellular responses because of their intrinsic differences in surface energy, roughness, and chemical composition. Moreover, given the nontransparent property of metal materials, which hampers the real‐time imaging of cellular behavior, a detailed cellular‐level analysis at the metal‐tissue interface has not been performed. In this study, metal‐based cell culture platforms (MCPs) with defined microscale topographical patterns are developed using a combination of photolithography and direct current magnetron sputtering techniques. The MCPs allow to observe vascular cells on metals in real time and identify the selective regulation of human aortic smooth muscle cells and Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) by metallic surface topography. Additionally, atomic force microscopy, contact angles, and energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy analyses show that the MCPs exhibit nearly identical chemical properties with their bulk counterparts, demonstrating that MCPs can be utilized as an in vitro cell culture platform system for understanding the cellular behavior on metal substrates.

Nanoscaled and microscaled parallel topography promotes tenogenic differentiation of ASC and neotendon formation in vitro

“…The former includes the modification of materials with the integration of growth factor, 33 peptide, 34 or extracellular matrices, 35,36 whereas the latter employs mainly topographical structure to play instructive roles. 37 The major roles of topographical induction include osteogenic, neurogenic, cardiovascular, and skin differentiation. [38][39][40][41][42][43] Topographical structure-mediated cell shape control is one of the major working mechanisms.…”

Engineering High-Resolution Micropatterns Directly onto Titanium with Optimized Contact Guidance to Promote Osteogenic Differentiation and Bone Regeneration

“…], which are rarely used as tissue engineering biomaterials in clinical practice . To mimic the surface characteristics of metallic implants, indirect methods have been frequently employed by depositing metallic thin films on patterned silicon wafers or polymeric substrates, ,,− but such deposited metallic thin films differ from the bulk in physical and mechanical properties (e.g., stiffness, hardness, etc. ), and thus, whose effect on cell behavior cannot be excluded. , Utilizing a novel plasma-based dry etching technique, Webster et al .…”

Effect of spatial arrangement and structure of hierarchically patterned fibrous scaffolds generated by a femtosecond laser on cardiomyoblast behavior

“…Previously, Jun et al demonstrated that the effect of the directionality of the muscle cells was reduced on surfaces with features sized >10 or <5 μm. Another study presented an increase in the distribution of aligned cells on a substrate with an increased groove depth of 5 μm in comparison to a surface with submicroscale depth . Therefore, we selected 10‐μm grooves with a 5‐μm depth for fibrous scaffolds prepared using femtosecond laser ablation.…”