Perforation Does Not Compromise Patterned Two-Dimensional Substrates for Cell Attachment and Aligned Spreading

Polymeric sheets were perforated by laser ablation and were uncompromised by a debris field when first treated with a thin layer of photoresist. Polymer sheets perforated with holes comprising 5, 10, and 20% of the nominal surface area were then patterned in stripes by photolithography, which was followed by synthesis in exposed regions of a cell-attractive zirconium oxide-1,4-butanediphosphonic acid interface. Microscopic and scanning electron microscopy analyses following removal of unexposed photoresist show well-aligned stripes for all levels of these perforations. NIH 3T3 fibroblasts plated on each of these perforated surfaces attached to the interface and spread in alignment with pattern fidelity in every case that is as high as that measured on a nonperforated, patterned substrate.