Surface decoration of electrospun scaffolds by microcontact printing

Microcontact printing has emerged as one of the most straightforward methods of surface patterning and has been successfully employed to obtain biologically instructive substrates for a wide range of tissue engineering applications. However, although a consolidated success has been gained in the patterning of smooth surfaces, limited popularity has been achieved in the modification of soft and/or textured substrates. Thus, aim of this study is to transfer protein patterns onto 3D electrospun matrices by a custom-designed microcontact printing setup. The proposed approach has been successfully pursued for precise and gentle transfer of poly-l-lysine patterns from polydimethylsiloxane stamps onto sub-micron-sized poly(e-caprolactone) electrospun fibers without loss of biological activity. In vitro performance of the patterned substrates has been preliminary evaluated in combination with human mesenchymal stem cells. Copyright © 2014 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.