Fluorescent Aromatic Platforms for Cell Patterning

This paper describes a simple experimental method of patterning fluorescent organic dyes, fluorescein, and rhodamine on gold substrates by microcontact printing techniques. The development of this step-by-step protocol has allowed us to prepare striped and squared micropatterns with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) linkers terminated by these fluorophores using a fast, easy, and inexpensive technique. Although the rest of the surface was covered with aliphatic molecules (methyl terminated), human fibroblasts demonstrated an unexpected response, aligning themselves according to the aromatic patterns, despite the presence of PEG, which is a cell resistant molecule, in the fluorescent regions.