Nanoscaled surface patterns influence adhesion and growth of human dermal fibroblasts

In general, there is a need for passivation of nanopatterned biomaterial surfaces if cells are intended to interact only with a feature of interest. For this reason self-assembled monolayers (SAM), varying in chain length, are used; they are highly effective in preventing protein adsorption or cell adhesion. In addition, a simple and cost-effective technique to design nanopatterns of various sizes and distances, the so-called nanosphere lithography (NSL), is discussed, which allows the control of cell adhesion and growth depending on the feature dimensions. Combining both techniques results in highly selective nanostructured surfaces, showing that single proteins selectively adsorb on activated nanopatterns. Additionally, adhesion and growth of normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) is strongly affected by the nanostructure dimensions, and it is proven that fibronectin (FN) matrix formation of these cells is influenced, too. Moreover, the FN fibrils are linked to the hexagonally close-packed nanopatterns. As a result, the system presented here can be applied in tissue engineering and implant design due to the fact that the nanopattern dimensions give rise to further modifications and allow the introduction of chemical heterogeneity to guide stem cell differentiation in the future.