Micropatterning of bacterial cellulose as degradable substrate for cell culture

This paper describes microfabrication of bacterial cellulose membrane. Bacterial cellulose is a nanofibrous cellulosic material produced by the bacteria called Acetobacter xylinum. We micropatterned a bacterial cellulose membrane by utilizing MEMS process. This patterned bacterial cellulose worked as a scaffold for mouse embryonic fibroblast cells: The cells attached and grew on the patterned bacterial cellulose membrane. Moreover, formation of cell cluster was observed by the treatment of cellulose degrading enzyme. We believe that this micropatterned cellulose membrane would be useful as degradable microscaffolds for cell culture.