Magnetic-microcontact printing based ECM nano-patterning allows homogeneous controlling of cell growth and behavior

Surface nano-patterning with biochemical cues has been shown to be a very powerful tool to control cell growth and attachment. However, manual patterning methods are unable to assure pattern homogeneity in large surface, introducing biases in the analysis of cell response face to external stimuli such as drugs, toxins or others. Here we present a new patterning method that allows to automatically pattern large surfaces such as whole microscope slides or 4in wafers. Using magnetic-microcontact printing, microscope slides were printed with different 50-150 µm patterns of extracellular matrix proteins (ECM) with a pitch of 40-220 µm. PC3-GFP cells were cultured on patterned slides. Fluorescence detection was used to evaluate cell spread homogeneity on nano-patterns. Results show homogeneous cell growth and attachment on defined patterns all along the patterned surface. Using this new methodology, the study of cell behavior in response to well-controlled biochemical surface cues can be studied. In the context of multiplexed assays for high-throughput screening, automated magnetic-microcontact printing is a method of choice providing a high level of reproducibility and homogeneity over large surface of analysis.