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Contact printing of arrayed microstructures

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Abstract

A novel contact printing method utilizing a sacrificial layer of polyacrylic acid (PAA) was developed to selectively modify the upper surfaces of arrayed microstructures. The method was characterized by printing polystyrene onto SU-8 microstructures to create an improved substrate for a cell-based microarray platform. Experiments measuring cell growth on SU-8 arrays modified with polystyrene and fibronectin demonstrated improved growth of NIH 3T3 (93% vs. 38%), HeLa (97% vs. 77%), and HT1080 (76% vs. 20%) cells relative to that for the previously used coating method. In addition, use of the PAA sacrificial layer permitted the printing of functionalized polystyrene, carboxylate polystyrene nanospheres, and silica nanospheres onto the arrays in a facile manner. Finally, a high concentration of extracellular matrix materials (ECM), such as collagen (5 mg/mL) and gelatin (0.1%), was contact-printed onto the array structures using as little as 5 μL of the ECM reagent and without the formation of a continuous film bridge across the microstructures. Murine embryonic stem cells cultured on arrays printed with this gelatin hydrogel remained in an undifferentiated state indicating an adequate surface gelatin layer to maintain these cells over time.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NIH (EB007612 and HG004843). The authors thank Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory (CHANL) for providing access to the facility’s instrumentation. The authors also thank Dr. Yuli Wang for valuable discussions and Colleen Phillips and Jonathan Clark for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Wei Xu, Alicia M. Luikart, Christopher E. Sims & Nancy L. Allbritton

  2. Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Nancy L. Allbritton

  3. Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Nancy L. Allbritton

Authors
  1. Wei Xu
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  2. Alicia M. Luikart
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  3. Christopher E. Sims
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  4. Nancy L. Allbritton
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Correspondence to Nancy L. Allbritton.

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Xu, W., Luikart, A.M., Sims, C.E. et al. Contact printing of arrayed microstructures. Anal Bioanal Chem 397, 3377–3385 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-010-3728-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-010-3728-2

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