Decorated surfaces by biofunctionalized gold beads: application to cell adhesion studies

We describe a simple but versatile method to decorate solid surfaces randomly with colloidal gold particles to which ligands of cell receptors can be coupled to generate local attraction sites for the control of cell adhesion. A self-assembled monolayer of (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane was deposited on glass slides. Gold beads were anchored to the functionalized surface through the sulfur group. We characterized the gold bead distribution on the functionalized surface with reflection interference contrast microscopy. The gold beads were functionalized with a disulfide-coupled cyclic pentapeptide containing an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) tripeptide sequence which is selectively recognized by integrin receptors alpha(V)beta(3) of endothelial cells. A blocking layer of bovine serum albumin was adsorbed onto the surface to prevent non-specific binding of the cells. We demonstrate that the RGD-functionalized colloidal gold beads act as local attraction centers, mediating rapid cell anchoring on a substrate impeding cell adhesion in the absence of attraction centers. Surprisingly, microinterferometry shows that after a time delay of about 1 h, the regions of the cell surface between the gold beads form close contacts with the substrate, which is attributed to strong van der Waals attraction after escape of repeller molecules from the contact surface.