Mimicking cellular environments by nanostructured soft interfaces

We present herein an innovative technique for decorating soft polymer surfaces with metallic nanostructures fabricated by diblock copolymer micelle nanolithography. Thus far, such nanolithography has been limited to plasma-resistant inorganic substrates such as glass. Our new development is based on the transfer of nanopatterns from glass to soft substrates. Special emphasis is given to hydrogel surfaces with respect to their properties for tailoring cell adhesion. Besides planar surfaces, periodic gold nanopatterns on curved surfaces have been fabricated, as demonstrated on the interior surface of a tubelike hydrogel, which potentially mimic situations of vessels in vivo. © 2007 American Chemical Society.