Investigation of the spreading and adhesion of human osteosarcoma cells on smooth and micro-grooved polydimethylsiloxane surfaces

The paper presents recent results of the study of spreading and adhesion of human osteosarcoma cells on soft polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) materials. Cell/surface interactions are studied on smooth and micro-grooved PDMS surfaces. The viscoelastic spreading behavior of the human osteosarcoma cells (during the spreading stages on smooth PDMS surfaces) was studied using wetting theory. The HOS cell spreading behavior was also investigated in the micro-grooved PDMS surfaces in an effort to study the contact guidance formation process. The results show that the initial stages of HOS cell spreading can be modeled as a complete wetting process. The results also show that the cell cytoplasm contributes more to the spreading process than the nucleus. In the case of cell spreading on micro-grooved surfaces, the cell tractions resulted in significant deformation of the microgrooves. The tractions were also calculated, and found to be in good agreement with the results from other studies. The results suggest that the cell spreading-induced soft substrate deformation needs to be considered in the design of implantable bioMEMS structures.