Recently we have found that amphiphilic polymers can form mesoscopic honeycomb pattern through casting under flow of moist air [1]. We also found that bovine aorta endothelial cells can adhere to the honeycomb films. It has been noted that cells on micro-patterned adhesive sites respond to local substrate environment -pattern size and geometry- with growth or apoptosis [2], [3]. Therefore we may control the response of the cells through the morphology of honeycomb patterns. However we found that the honeycomb patterns are not stable in the culture medium. This suggests that the honeycomb patterns can not provide constant stimuli to the cells. Here we have introduced a photo-crosslinking agent into the amphiphilic polymers to maintain the honeycomb structure. The crosslinked cast films were immersed in phosphate buffer, and the stability was evaluated morphologically by means of optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Moreover we investigated the effect of the surface property of the substrates on honeycomb films adhesion.
[1] N. Maruyama, T. Koito, J. Nishida, T. Sawadaishi, X. Cieren, K. Ijiro,
O. Karthaus and M. Shimomura; Thin Solid Films, 327-329,
854 (1998)
[2] C. S. Chen, M. Mrksich, S. Huang, G. M. Whitesides, and D. E. Ingber;
Science, 276, 1425-1428 (1997)
[3] A. Curtis and C. Wilkinson; Biomaterials, 18, 1573-1583
(1997)
