The micro structured deposition of vital cells is an important challenge in tissue engineering, biosensor technology, and in all research dealing with cell-cell and cell-substrate contacts. Hence, an inkjet printing technology has been developed to manufacture Au-based micro electrodes by sputter coating inversely printed polyester foils. These electrodes feature minimal structure-sizes of 35 µm and consist of an anode and a cathode part. They were used with fibrinogenic epithelial cell suspensions to deposit human keratinocytes (HaCaT), mouse fibroblasts (L-929) and the protein fibrin by applying DC-voltage. Subsequently cells were electrophoretically attracted to the anode, following exactly its shape, while the insoluble fibrin was simultaneously precipitated due to the electrically mediated polymerization of the soluble fibrinogen molecule. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that this technique is suitable to co-deposit both epithelial cell-types in a layered fashion.
The lower voltage boundary for successful deposition was set at approx. 0.8 V needed for the conversion of fibrinogen into fibrin, while the upper voltage boundary was set at approx. 1.85 V, when commencing electrolysis inhibited deposition of vital cells.
Subsequent to the anodic cell-fibrin deposition, cells were cultivated for up to four days and then characterized by FDA+EB staining, methyl violet staining and SEM. Finally, the fibrinogen-fibrin conversion was studied using HPLC, SDS-gel-chromatography and ATR/FTIR.

Reference:
R. Zehbe et al., Micro structured electrodes for the anodic immobilization of cells in a 2D fibrin-matrix, BIOmaterialien 6 (3), 2005, 254

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