The Effect of Surface Nano/Micro-Texturing on Escherichia Coli Cell Adhesion

Control of cell-to-surface adhesion has significant impacts on various biological and biomedical applications. In this study, the adhesion of Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells on nano/micro-textured surfaces produced by a unique surface texturing technique, aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si), was studied in order to control E. coli cell adhesion on glass substrates in an E. coli-based whole-cell chemical sensor. It was found that textured surfaces significantly enhanced cell-to-surface adhesion. Among the textured surfaces, nano/micro-textured surfaces showed advantage over micro-textured surfaces on the cell-to-surface adhesion. Study of the cell-to-surface adhesion mechanism suggests that the cell adhesion efficiency was controlled by the particle density of the textured surfaces.