Large-Scale Protein Arrays Generated with Interferometric Lithography for Spatial Control of Cell-Material Interactions

Understanding cellular interactions with material surfaces at the micro- and nanometer scale isessential for the development of the next generation of biomaterials. Several techniques have beenused to create micro- and nanopatterned surfaces as a means of studying cellular interactions with asurface. Herein, we report the novel use of interference lithography to create a large (4 cm2) array of 33 nm deep channels in a gold surface, to expose an antireflective coating on a silicon wafer at the bottomof the gold channels. The fabricated pores had a diameter of 140–350 nm separated by an average pitchof 304–750 nm, depending on the fabrication conditions. The gold surface was treated with 2-(2-(2-(11-mercaptoundecyloxy)ethoxy)ethoxy)ethanol to create protein-resistant areas. Fibronectin wasselectively adsorbed onto the exposed antireflective coating creating nanometer-scale cell adhesivedomains. A murine osteoblast cell line (MC3T3-E1) was seeded onto the surfaces and was shown toattach to the fibronectin domains and spread across the material surface