Interaction of animal cells with ordered nanotopography.

Animal cells live in a complex and diverse environment where they encounter a vast amount of information, a considerable amount of which is in the nanometer range. The surface topography that a cell encounters has a role to play in influencing cell behavior. It has been demonstrated widely that surface shape can directly influence the behavior of cells. In this paper, we discuss the interactions of animal cells with engineered nanotopography, fabricated in quartz and reverse embossed into polycaprolactone, fibroblast cells show reduced adhesion to the ordered nano pits. We show that the area of cells spreading on a structured nanotopography is reduced compared with that on a planar substrate. Furthermore, cytoskeletal organization is disrupted as indicated by a marked decrease in number and size of focal contacts.

Substratum nanotopography and the adhesion of biological cells. Are symmetry or regularity of nanotopography important?

Animal cells live in environments where many of the features that surround them are on the nanoscale, for example detail on collagen molecules. Do cells react to objects of this size and if so, what features of the molecules are they responding to? Here we show, by fabricating nanometric features in silica and by casting reverse features in polycaprolactone and culturing vertebrate cells in culture upon them, that cells react in their adhesion to the features. With cliffs, adhesion is enhanced at the cliff edge, while pits or pillars in ordered arrays diminish adhesion. The results implicate ordered topography and possibly symmetry effects in the adhesion of cells. Parallel results were obtained in the adhesion of carboxylate-surfaced 2-microm-diameter particles to these surfaces. These results are in agreement with recent predictions from non-biological nanometric systems.