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We demonstrate high aspect-ratio photonic crystals that could serve as three-dimensional (3D) microincubators for cell culture and also provide label-free optical detection of the cells. The investigated microstructures, fabricated by electrochemical micromachining of standard silicon wafers, consist of periodic arrays of silicon walls separated by narrow deeply etched air-gaps (50 μm high and 5 μm wide) and feature the typical spectral properties of photonic crystals in the wavelength range 1.0-1.7 μm: their spectral reflectivity is characterized by wavelength regions where reflectivity is high (photonic bandgaps), separated by narrow wavelength regions where reflectivity is very low. In this work, we show that the presence of cells, grown inside the gaps, strongly affects light propagation across the photonic crystal and, therefore, its spectral reflectivity. Exploiting a label-free optical detection method, based on a fiberoptic setup, we are able to probe the extension of cells adherent to the vertical silicon walls with a non-invasive direct testing. In particular, the intensity ratio at two wavelengths is the experimental parameter that can be well correlated to the cell spreading on the silicon wall inside the gaps.

The authors describe the interaction of biological nanostructures formed by β(2) -microglobulin amyloid fibrils with three-dimensional silicon microstructures consisting in periodic arrays of vertical silicon walls (≈3 μm-thick) separated by 50 μm-deep air gaps (≈5 μm-wide). These structures are of great interest from a biological point of view since they well mimic the interstitial environment typical of amyloid deposition in vivo. Moreover, they behave as hybrid photonic crystals, potentially applicable as optical transducers for label-free detection of the kinetics of amyloid fibrils formation. Fluorescence and atomic force microscopy (AFM) show that a uniform distribution of amyloid fibrils is achieved when fibrillogenesis occurs directly on silicon. The high resolution AFM images also demonstrate that amyloid fibrils grown on silicon are characterized by the same fine structure typically ensured by fibrillogenesis in solution., (Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

In this work, we show that vertical, high aspect-ratio (HAR) photonic crystals (PhCs), consisting of periodic arrays of 5 µm wide gaps with depth of 50 µm separated by 3 µm thick silicon walls, fabricated by electrochemical micromachining, can be used as three-dimensional microincubators, allowing cell lines to be selectively grown into the gaps. Silicon micromachined dice incorporating regions with different surface profiles, namely flat silicon and deeply etched PhC, were used as microincubators for culturing adherent cell lines with different morphology and adhesion properties. We extensively investigated and compared the proliferative behavior on HAR PhCs of eight human cell models, with different origins, such as the epithelial (SW613-B3; HeLa; SW480; HCT116; HT29) and the mesenchymal (MRC-5V1; CF; HT1080). We also verified the contribution of cell sedimentation into the silicon gaps. Fluorescence microscopy analysis highlights that only cell lines that exhibit, in the tested culture condition, the behavior typical of the mesenchymal phenotype are able to penetrate into the gaps of the PhC, extending their body deeply in the narrow gaps between adjacent silicon walls, and to grow adherent to the vertical surfaces of silicon. Results reported in this work, confirmed in various experiments, strongly support our statement that such three-dimensional microstructures have selection capabilities with regard to the cell lines that can actively populate the narrow gaps. Cells with a mesenchymal phenotype could be exploited in the next future as bioreceptors, in combination with HAR PhC optical transducers, e.g., for label-free optical detection of cellular activities involving changes in cell adhesion and/or morphology (e.g., apoptosis) in a three-dimensional microenvironment.