Imaging cells on polymer spherulites

Polymers are commonly used to construct tissue-engineered medical products and the conditions used to process these polymeric materials can affect their biological performance. For semi-crystalline polymers, thermal processing conditions can induce crystallization of the polymer chains into spherulites, which cause the polymer surface to become roughened. This change in surface topology can influence cell behaviours such as adhesion, morphology and proliferation. Herein, a simple microscope technique is presented, which combines fluorescence microscopy with transmitted white light microscopy using crossed polarizers. This technique allows simultaneous imaging of cells and polymer spherulites, which enables the biomaterials researcher to observe the effects of spherulites on cell alignment and morphology.