Effect of Microgrooved Surfaces on Fibroblast Cells Orientation

It is well known that cells can interact with patterned surfaces; although the mechanisms are still not clear, substrata containing periodic patterns of parallel grooves can impose directional constraints on cells and affect the rate and direction of cell migration. The aim of our work is to evaluate the possibility of replicating microgrooved surfaces by soft lithography and to assess, in vitro, the influence of three different microgrooved surfaces on fibroblasts alignment. Microgrooved substrata were obtained by Replica Molding out of two different polymers: PLLATMC and ChronoFlex AL from three different masters. From each master, a silicon mold was prepared and the polymers were casted in the mold using chloroform as solvent. By SEM and laser profilometry analysis we observed a good reproducibility of the different surfaces. The obtained results indicate that Replica Molding technique is an accurate method to reproduce a wide number of micropatterned surfaces with different polymers. In vitro tests with L929 murine fibroblasts showed different degrees of cellular alignment and elongation depending on grooves width.