Array arrangement of living cells on self-assembled-monolayer pattern chip with femtosecond laser inducing mechanical force 'micro tsunami'

摘要

We have developed a novel method for arranging living cells on a glass chip with micrometer-scale cell-adhering areas by applying femtosecod laser. To form the cell-adhesion area, the chip surface was first covalently modified with perfluoroalkyl self-assembled-monolayer (Rf-SAM) and then etched by oxygen-plasma. The Rf-surface and the etched surface were characterized using solvent contact-angle analysis. It was confirmed that the Rf-surface has low surface-free-energy as contact angle was 118.2?° and 69.0?° with water and hexadecane, respectively. Thus the Rf-surface has repellent characteristics for polar and nonpolar materials. Protein adsorption on the fabricated Rf-micropattern chip was evaluated using R-phycoerythrin. There was little signal derived from R-phycoerythrin on the Rf-surface indicating that Rf-SAM inhibits the protein adsorption onto the surface. When mammalian PC12 cells were cultured on the Rf-micropattern chip, the cells adhered and grew up only on the etched glass surface but not on Rf-surface. Cultured cells were detached one by one from a culture substrate and transported onto a specific cell-adhering area on the Rf-micropattern chip by using femtosecond-laser-induced mechanical force that we named "micro tsunami".