Title :
Nanoreplica moulding of polyacrylamide hydrogels
Author :
Yun Jung Heo ; Takahashi, Masaharu ; Shibata, Hajime ; Okitsu, Takashi ; Kawanishi, Tetsuyas ; Takeuchi, Shoji
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Ind. Sci., Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
fDate :
11/1/2012 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogels are widely used in bioanalysis and biosensing applications. Scaling down of PAM patterns to micro/nanosize extends PAM applications to lab-on-a-chip, highly sensitive biosensors and cell/tissue analysis. Proposed is a replica moulding technique to pattern the PAM surface down to nanosize. Various patterns on silicon moulds successfully transferred to PAM with a minimum dimension of 60 nm and aspect ratio of up to ~9. PAM is characterised as a platform for a single cell array and the analysis of cell responses to topographic cues. Moreover, micro/nanopatterned PAM samples were implanted under the back skin of rats to study the topological effects on immuno responses in vivo. Therefore the use of micro/nanoreplica moulding to pattern PAM hydrogel provides opportunities for studying the relationship between soft nanoscaled structures and cell/tissue.
Keywords :
biomechanics; biomedical materials; biosensors; cellular biophysics; hydrogels; lab-on-a-chip; moulding; nanofabrication; nanomedicine; nanopatterning; nanosensors; prosthetics; replica techniques; skin; PAM surface down; back skin; bioanalysis applications; biosensing applications; cell response analysis; cell-tissue analysis; highly sensitive biosensors; immunoresponses in vivo; lab-on-a-chip; micropatterned PAM samples; microreplica moulding; nanopatterned PAM samples; nanoreplica moulding; polyacrylamide hydrogels; replica moulding technique; silicon moulds; single cell array; size 60 nm; soft nanoscaled structures; topological effects;
Journal_Title :
Micro & Nano Letters, IET
DOI :
10.1049/mnl.2012.0525
