Surface Patterning Of Biodegradable Polymer In Tissue Engineering By Applying Photolithography

The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and inherent problems with current surgical therapies has prompted major efforts in the field of vascular tissue engineering. While there have been significant advances towards creating functional blood vessel substitutes, the fabrication of a vascular graft with mechanical, structural and functional properties similar to native vessels has not yet been achieved. We have presented an observation of a new biodegradable polymer utilized on the research of tissue engineering. Our idea was to create a structure to imitate blood vessel muscles in vitro and also to guide the cells when they start spreading and trying to connect with each other. CUPE is a newly invented biodegradable polymer. It has great mechanical properties and biocompliance. The polymers were imprinted with two shapes of channels from silicon moulds which were fabricated by two different etching methods as cell culture substrates. The result shows that cells were affected by the structure of environment. According to our design of patterns cell growth presented an alignment within the channel grooves. Especially for the one with triangle-shape walls since there is no space for cells to attach and grow on the top area, we can see a clear line which blocks cells from two sides of wall to connect. However, cells will eventually over accrete across the walls and cover the whole polymer surface. This indicates it is crucial to control the amount of cells we use and the time cells grow.