Selective modulation of cell response on engineered fractal silicon substrates

Francesco Gentile, Rebecca Medda, Ling Cheng, Edmondo Battista, Pasquale E. Scopelliti, Paolo Milani, Elisabetta A. Cavalcanti-Adam, Paolo Decuzzi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

A plethora of work has been dedicated to the analysis of cell behavior on substrates with ordered topographical features. However, the natural cell microenvironment is characterized by biomechanical cues organized over multiple scales. Here, randomly rough, self-affinefractal surfaces are generated out of silicon,where roughness R a and fractal dimension D f are independently controlled. The proliferation rates, the formation of adhesion structures, and the morphology of 3T3 murine fibroblasts are monitored over six different substrates. The proliferation rate is maximized on surfaces with moderate roughness (R a ∼ 40nm) and large fractal dimension (D f ∼ 2.4); whereas adhesion structures are wider and more stable on substrates with higher roughness (R a ∼ 50nm) and lower fractal dimension (D f ∼ 2.2). Higher proliferation occurson substrates exhibiting densely packed and sharp peaks, whereas more regular ridges favor adhesion. These results suggest that randomly roughtopographies can selectively modulate cell behavior.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1461
JournalScientific Reports
Volume3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Selective modulation of cell response on engineered fractal silicon substrates'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this