Evaluation of parylene derivatives for use as biomaterials for human astrocyte cell patterning

Cell patterning is becoming increasingly popular in neuroscience because it allows for the control in the location and connectivity of cells. A recently developed cell patterning technology uses patterns of an organic polymer, parylene-C, on a background of SiO2. When cells are cultured on the parylene-C/SiO2 substrate they conform to the underlying parylene-C geometry. Parylene-C is, however, just one member of a family of parylene polymers that have varying chemical and physical properties. In this work, we investigate whether two commercially available mainstream parylene derivatives, parylene-D, parylene-N and a more recent parylene derivative, parylene-HT to determine if they enable higher fidelity hNT astrocyte cell patterning compared to parylene-C. We demonstrate that all parylene derivatives are compatible with the existing laser fabrication method. We then demonstrate that parylene-HT, parylene-D and parylene-N are suitable for use as an hNT astrocyte cell attractive substrate and result in an equal quality of patterning compared to parylene-C. This work supports the use of alternative parylene derivatives for applications where their different physical and chemical properties are more suitable.

细胞图案化（Cell patterning）在神经科学领域的应用愈发广泛，因其可精准调控细胞的定位与连接方式。近期开发的一种细胞图案化技术，以二氧化硅（SiO₂）为基底，制备有机聚合物聚对二甲苯-C（parylene-C）的图案结构。当细胞在聚对二甲苯-C/二氧化硅基底上培养时，会沿基底下方的聚对二甲苯-C图案形貌排布。不过，聚对二甲苯-C仅为聚对二甲苯聚合物家族中的一员，该家族各成员具有各异的化学与物理特性。本研究针对两款商业化主流聚对二甲苯衍生物——聚对二甲苯-D（parylene-D）、聚对二甲苯-N（parylene-N），以及一款新型聚对二甲苯衍生物聚对二甲苯-HT（parylene-HT）展开探究，以验证相较于聚对二甲苯-C，这三种材料能否实现更高保真度的hNT星形胶质细胞（hNT astrocyte）图案化。本研究证实，所有受试聚对二甲苯衍生物均兼容现有的激光制备工艺。后续实验进一步表明，聚对二甲苯-HT、聚对二甲苯-D与聚对二甲苯-N均可作为hNT星形胶质细胞的亲和底物，其实现的图案化质量与聚对二甲苯-C相当。本研究可为那些更适配特定理化特性的应用场景，选用替代型聚对二甲苯衍生物提供实验与理论支撑。