Nanotopographical guidance of C6 glioma cell alignment and oriented growth

Abstract The surface properties of the extracellular matrix play vital roles in cellular behavior such as adhesion, spreading, migration, proliferation and differentiation. While cell attachment and adhesion onto surfaces are mainly mediated by surface molecular interaction, cell morphology and orientation are significantly affected by the topographical cues of the substrate. We reported here the alignment of C6 glioma cells on polystyrene (PS) substrate containing periodic nanotopography. The ridge/groove type structures (210 nm in periodicity, and 30–40 nm in depth) were generated on polystyrene surface using Nd:YAG polarized laser radiation at 266 nm. The cultured cells were shown to align strictly along the direction of the ridges/grooves. And there were distinctive features such as elongated morphology and asymmetrical cell surface extensions, revealed by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicated that ordered and continuous nanostructures on substrates can pattern cell, and guide cell alignment and oriented growth along definite directions. The possible mechanism and significance of these observations were also discussed.