Whilst the significance of substrate topography as a regulator of cell function is well established, a systematic analysis of the principles underlying this is still unavailable. Here we evaluate the hypothesis that surface energy plays a decisive role in substrate-mediated modulation of cell phenotype by evaluation of cell behaviour on synthetic microstructures exhibiting pronounced differences in surface energy. These microstructures, specifically cubes and walls, were fabricated from a biocompatible base polymer, poly(methyl methacrylate), by variotherm injection molding. The dimensions of the cubes were 1 μm x 1 μm x 1 μm (height x width x length) with a periodicity of 1:1 and 1:5 and the dimensions of the walls 1 μm x 1 μm x 15 mm (height x width x length) with a periodicity of 1:1 and 1:5. Mold inserts were made by lithography and electroplating. The surface energy of the resultant microstructures was determined by static contact angle measurements. Light scanning microscopy of the morphology of NT2/D1 and MC3T3-E1 preosteoblast cells cultured on structured PMMA samples in both cases revealed a profound surface energy dependence. “Walls” appeared to promote significant cell elongation, whilst a lack of cell adhesion was observed on “cubes” with the lowest periodicity. Contact angle measurements on walls revealed enhanced surface energy anisotropy (55 mN/m max., 10 mN/m min.) causing a lengthwise spreading of the test liquid droplet, similar to cell elongation. Surface energy measurements for cubes revealed increased isotropic hydrophobicity (87° max., H2O). A critical water contact angle of ≤ 80° appears to be necessary for adequate cell adhesion. A “switch” for cell adhesion and subsequently cell growth could therefore be applied by, for example, adjusting the periodicity of hydrophobic structures. In summary cell elongation on walls and a critical surface energy level for cell adhesion could be produced for NT2/D1 and MC3T3-E1 cells by symmetrical and asymmetrical energy barrier levels. We, furthermore, propose a water-drop model providing a common physicochemical cause regarding similar cell/droplet geometries and cell adhesion on the investigated microstructures.

/pdf/cell-morphology-on-poly-methyl-methacrylate-microstructures-2c3eubf5i8.pdf

Cell Morphology on Poly(methyl methacrylate) Microstructures as Function of Surface Energy.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Several strategies – small molecules, gene therapy, surgeries, cardiac rehabilitation – have been developed to treat patients with cardiac disorders or to prevent the disease. A novel promising tool is the application of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human cardiomyocytes; however, their clinical application is hampered by their fundamentally immature characteristics. Although several approaches were recently proven to support certain aspects of cardiac maturation, it has been discovered that any kind of stimulus itself is insufficient to induce proper maturation of these cardiomyocytes. Therefore, researchers have developed multifactorial approaches linking biotechnology, life sciences and material sciences toolsets. In this review, we summarise the current state-of-the-art methodologies in cardiac differentiation and maturation with the application of biocompatible materials and automated cell culture systems combined with various electrical, mechanical, topological, and biochemical stimuli. 

Multifactorial approaches to enhance maturation of human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes

The increasing demand for disposable ‘point-of-care’ systems poses on-going challenges for health care indus-tries to provide improvements in diagnosis and fabrication techniques Regarding the fabrication in an injection molding process, the demolding stage is critical for success For an in-depth investigation a tool for acquiring the demolding ener-gies during the injection molding process was developed This quantitative value in addition to injection molding simulations was used to describe the demolding stage For easier classification the relevant parameters were grouped into four main influencing factors: polymer, machine parameters, microstructure design and the tool surface Subsequently, several parameters affecting the demolding energy were attributed to each of those categories and examined systematically One semi-crystalline polymer (PP), two amorphous polymers (COP and PMMA) and a thermoplastic COC-elastomer were investigated It was found that the demolding energies were determined strong

/pdf/analysis-of-factors-affecting-the-demolding-of-micro-1n8xm6v1tl.pdf

Analysis of factors affecting the demolding of micro-structured devices in the injection molding process

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2023.156822

Surfaces for heart cells: Establishing the optimum plasma surface engineering methodology on polystyrene for cardiac cell engineering

The polymeric niche encountered by cells during primary culturing can affect cell fate. However, most cell types are primarily propagated on polystyrene (PS). A cell type specific screening for optimal primary culture polymers particularly for regenerative approaches seems inevitable. The effect of physical and chemical properties of treated (corona, oxygen/nitrogen plasma) and untreated cyclic olefin polymer (COP), polymethymethacrylate (PMMA), PP, PLA, PS, PC on neuronal stem cell characteristics was analyzed. Our comprehensive approach revealed plasma treated COP and PMMA as optimal polymers for primary neuronal stem cell culturing and propagation. An increase in the number of NT2/D1 cells with pronounced adhesion, metabolic activities and augmented expression of neural precursor markers was associated to the plasma treatment of surfaces of COP and PMMA with nitrogen or oxygen, respectively. A shift towards large cell sizes at stable surface area/volume ratios that might promote the observed increase in metabolic activities and distinct modulations in F-actin arrangements seem to be primarily mediated by the plasma treatment of surfaces. These results indicate that the polymeric niche has a distinct impact on various cell characteristics. The selection of distinct polymers and the controlled design of an optimized polymer microenvironment might thereby be an effective tool to promote essential cell characteristics for subsequent approaches.

Effects of the polymeric niche on neural stem cell characteristics during primary culturing

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Stefan Haubenwallner

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Effects of the polymeric niche on neural stem cell characteristics during primary culturing