Selective Cell Isolation by Transferrin Functionalized Silane–Carbon Soot Mediated Superhydrophobic Micropatterns

Abstract Surfaces that facilitate selective cell adhesion using specific targeting moieties have great implications in diagnostics, tissue engineering, and high throughput screenings. However, designing robust and spatially confined micropatterns for selective cell isolation on portable platform is highly challenging. Here, wettable, silane (Si) micropatterns holding covalently attached transferrin (Tf) for targeting Tf overexpressing cancer cells are reported. These micropatterns are separated by carbon soot based superhydrophobic regions that turn these targeting sites into surface tension confined “microwells.” These microwells facilitate capture of human colorectal carcinoma cells (HCT 116) and human cervical adenocarcinoma cells (HeLa) by confining their attachment to wettable region, thereby making isolation and spotting of the targeted cells more efficient. In addition, owing to its transparent trait, the Tf conjugated wettability based patterned chip offer real time optical monitoring of cell adhesion, cell growth, and cell behavior. The specific cell isolation using such surface has applications in devising cancer recurrence monitoring tests.