Guided extracellular matrix formation from fibroblast cells cultured on bio-inspired configurable multiscale substrata

Abstract

Engineering complex extracellular matrix (ECM) is an important challenge for cell and tissue engineering applications as well as for understanding fundamental cell biology. We developed the methodology for fabrication of precisely controllable multiscale hierarchical structures using capillary force lithography in combination with original wrinkling technique for the generation of well-defined native ECM-like platforms by culturing fibroblast cells on the multiscale substrata [1]. This paper provides information on detailed characteristics of polyethylene glycol-diacrylate multiscale substrata. In addition, a possible model for guided extracellular matrix formation from fibroblast cells cultured on bio-inspired configurable multiscale substrata is proposed.