%0 Generic
%A Christophis, Christof
%D 2011
%F heidok:12274
%K Microfluidics , Cell Adhesion , Bioactivity , Topography , Hydration
%R 10.11588/heidok.00012274
%T Quantification of cell adhesion strength on artificial surfaces with a microfluidic shear force device
%U https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/12274/
%X Adhesion strength is a measure to determine the interaction between cells and their environment. Numerous types of devices and coatings are developed in order to meet medical and non medical issues and surface properties can be tuned in order to evoke specific cell response. In this work various properties of solid surfaces were investigated towards their impact on adhesion process and adhesion strength of mammalian cells, which both give information on the cell interaction with the substrate. Therefore a sophisticated assay to observe cell adhesion and measure cell adhesion strength on artificial surfaces was developed. Its capability to measure cell adhesion strength in the order of five magnitudes with a high reliability and quantitative output was applied to synthetic surfaces with different degree of hydration, anisotropic topography, bioactivity and different polarizations. Investigation of fibroblast adhesion on ethylene glycol self assembled monolayers showed that cell adhesion strength is reduced by increasing degree of hydration. At the same time it was found that cell adhesion strength was independent of cell spreading area, in particular when a certain spreading size was reached. This finding may strengthen the zipper detachment mechanism by which the cell detachment occurs after distinct bonds are broken. Another study on hydrogel like polysaccharides confirmed the inability of fibroblasts to attach to hydrated surfaces. At the same time it was found that hematopoietic progenitor cells expressing CD44 receptors overcome the inertness and attach to the coating by shear force induction through a hydrodynamic flow. This finding may explain the fact that the presence of hyaluronan is a prerequisite in the stem cell homing and engraftment process into the bone marrow. Besides receptor ligand interactions more basic surface polarity effects were studied, which have been reported to have a minor impact towards cell adhesion. Here it was shown by investigation of fibroblast adhesion on periodically poled ferroelectric lithium tantalite crystals, that the gradient between two opposite polarities can be sensed by cells but not the polarity itself. The cells do not distinguish the overall polarity of a surface, but avoid placing the nucleus in proximity to the sharp borders in between to inverse polarities as the cells start to spread. Even though this astonishing reaction is unexpected it is not contradictive to the absence of polarity sensing because sensing of a polarity gradient is different from a distinct polarization spread over a large area. Instead of a gradient, anisotropic surface properties can be achieved by directional surface texture. Anisotropically textured poly(p-xylylene) surfaces, which consist of dense packed tilted nanorods, revealed a force directional dependence of fibroblast cell adhesion strength. The hydrodynamic shear force applied with the direction of nanorod tilting revealed a reduced cell adhesion strength compared to force application perpendicular and against the tilting. This finding could be explained by a model which accounts for cell filopodia attaching between nanorods of the surface. In order to prove the filopodia attachment theory more sophisticated imaging, which reveals ultrastructural components, was needed. Therefore, cell preparation protocols were established with special attention to preserve cellular structure to image via X-ray holography under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. The imaging project was conducted in a consortium of researchers and first successful imaging was demonstrated.