Regulation of MC3T3-E1 Functions on Honeycomb-patterned Poly(?-caprolactone) Films with Tunable Pore Size

摘要

Synthetic substrata with topographic features, such as grooves, pits, pores, wells and nodes, spheres, and ridges, have been developed to regulate cell behavior. Many methods have been used to fabricate ordered, porous structures. These methods include colloidal crystals, inorganic templates, lithography, phase separation, and the breath-figure (BF) method. Compared with the other, the BF method is simple and economical to create honeycomb-patterned substrata. In this method, polymer is dissolved in a volatile and water-immiscible solvent such as CHCl3, benzene, and CS2, which can evaporate quickly in a humid environment. The sharp drop of temperature surrounding polymer solution due to the rapid evaporation of volatile solvent causes condensation of water vapor that exists in air. Subsequently polymer precipitates from solution and stabilizes water droplets that are orderly packed on the solution/air interface as a result of capillary force and convection currents. Honeycomb-patterned substrata can be obtained after complete drying. However, the BF method has been used to create honeycomb-patterned structures from limited polymer species, for instance, amphiphilic copolymers.