Abstract
In this study, the migration of HIG-82 fibroblasts can be controlled by nano/mirco patterned oxidized silicon surface in vitro. The microposts were defined through photolithography and silver nanoparticles assisted etching was used to produce the nanostuctures. After that, the hydrophobic chemical was coated on the surface of nanostructures to form hydrophilic/hydrophobic composite structures. In order to investigate cell anisotropic migration, the spacing of micropost between columns and rows was designed to have various distances. The distances between columns ranged from 20 to 60 μm while the distance between rows was kept constant at 200 μm. In this research, we discovered that when the distances of micropost increase, the cells would hardly migrate from one post to another. If the distance of micropost is over than 45 μm, the cells almost cannot cross the gap. The cell can form a long line which is up to 1000 μm in 12 hours while the gap is less than 45μm. The process of cell fusing is also investigated. Cells expanded fliopodia to detect environment and connected to each other in few hours. In conclusion, this study implicates that the migration and exploration of fibroblasts can be observed on the patterned oxidized silicon surface. The cells growth direction can also be controlled using this kind of patterns. Keywords: fibroblast, nanostructure, FDTS