High-Spatioresolved Microarchitectural Surface Prepared by Photograft Copolymerization Using Dithiocarbamate: Surface Preparation and Cellular Responses

Self-perpetuating photograft copolymerization based on the photochemistry of an iniferter benzyl N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate was utilized to design two types of microprocessed surfaces using a custom-designed apparatus operated by an X−Y step motor. Cellular adhesion and growth responses were studied on (1) a surface upon which five different water soluble polymer regions were photografted with micron order precision and (2) three different gradient surfaces with unidirectionally varying thicknesses of a water soluble graft polymer layer. A striped micropatterned surface (width of each region 500 μm) was prepared by sequential photoirradiation through a photomask with a stripe window on a selected region of a poly(styrene-co-vinylbenzyl N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate)-coated PET film immersed in an aqueous solution of vinyl monomer. The sample stage was moved in a stepwise manner for each change of monomer solution. The monomers studied were N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAAm), 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), N...