Guided Homing of Cells in Multi-Photon Microfabricated Bioscaffolds

Tissues contain exquisite vascular microstructures, and patterns of chemical cues for directing cell migration, homing, and differentiation for organ development and function. 3D microfabrication by multi-photon photolithography is a flexible, high-resolution tool for generating 3D bioscaffolds. However, the combined fabrication of scaffold microstructure simultaneously with patterning of cues to create both geometrically and chemically defined microenvironments remains to be demonstrated. This study presents a high-speed method for micron-resolution fabrication of scaffold microstructure and patterning of protein cues simultaneously using native scaffold materials. By the simultaneous microfabrication of arbitrary microvasculature geometries, and patterning selected regions of the microvasculature with the homing ligand P-selectin, this study demonstrates adhesion, rolling, and selective homing of cells in defined 3D regions. This novel ability to generate high-resolution geometries replete with patterned cues at high speed enables the construction of biomimetic microenvironments for complex 3D assays of cellular behavior.