Evaluation of the properties of mechanically stretched poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel grafted polydimethylsiloxane surfaces

Statement of Purpose: Temperature-responsive cell culture surface (TRCS), poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PIPAAm) grafted tissue culture polystyrene (PIPAAm-TCPS), has been widely utilized as conventional TRCS in cell-sheet based tissue engineering filed. Recently, our group developed stretchable TRCS, which was PIPAAm gel grafted polydimethylsiloxane (PIPAAm-PDMS), to proof a concept that external mechanical stress could modulate the thickness of grafted PIPAAm layer as well as properties of PIPAAm-PDMS (Fig. 1). In the report, we demonstrated that external stretching and/or shrinking stress modulated cell attachment and detachment behavior, probably because of altering the degree of dehydration and hydration of grafted PIPAAm chains. In this study, we prepared PIPAAm-PDMSs with large and low density of grafted PIPAAm. In order to further investigate the mechanical stress modulated cell attachment and detachment properties, properties (the amount of adsorbed fibronectin (FN), wettability, and cell attachment) of these two PIPAAm-PDMS surfaces at stretched and/or stretched states were evaluated and compared.