Fabrication process of micro-patterns on cell-culturing substrates toward high-resolution control and observation of cell migration

Abstract

It is well known that cell migrations play a key role in the living systems. From the basic technical point of view, cell migration control is one of the important and useful ways to clarify the mechanism of the cell migration qualitatively and quantitatively. For the purpose of high-resolution control and observation of the cell migrations, which is the goal of this research, in this study, an attempt was made to establish the fabrication process of micro-patterns on caged cell-culturing substrates using inverted microscope with high magnification objective lens. With the combination of fluorescence antibody technique, the adequate ultraviolet (UV) lay exposure time was obtained for the formation of micro-patterns of fibronectin on the caged cell-culturing substrates. We also confirmed that it was possible to control the position of micro-patterns by the primary and secondary UV exposure. In addition, Swiss 3T3 cell culture experiment demonstrated that the initial shape of the cell could be restricted by the primary UV exposure and that the secondary UV exposure was remarkably useful to control the cell migration. © 2011 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.