In vitro Neuronal Cell Guidance by Protein Micro- and Nanocontact Printing

Functionalization of solid surfaces with proteins by micro-and nanopatterning provides powerful strategies to generate active biointerfaces. Using soft lithographic procedures, cell-attractive molecules can be applied to cell-repulsive surfaces by microcontact printing (μCP). The biomolecules can be attached simply by physisorption or using chemical binding strategies. This enables to generate various micropatterns that support cell adhesion, neurite outgrowth, and the formation of a geometrically defined network along the permissive regions. In such networks of reduced complexity, signal transduction and signal processing can be studied under various experimental conditions.