Growth behavior of SHSY5Y cells on hybrid micro-pit and nano-pillar arrays

The directional arrangement and extension of cells is of great significance in the tissue engineering field. Great efforts have been made to study the effects of micro- or nano- structures on cell behaviors, but they are still poorly understood. In this work, hybrid micro/nano structures prepared by combining laser marking technology with metal assisted chemical etching (MACE) were introduced to study their effect on the growth behavior of SHSY5Y cells. It was found that the cells on the silicon micro-pit arrays (SiMP arrays, unetched substrate) were arranged orderly along the edge of the micro-pits, stretched and connected with each other, while the cells on the hybrid silicon micro-pit and silicon nano-pillar arrays (hybrid SiMP/SiNP arrays, etched substrates) were also arranged in an orderly manner with a relatively short cell stretch, but displayed a preference for independent growth. In addition, about 90% of cells showed a preference for growing on the area of nano-pillars (NPs), and only 10% of cells on the area of micro-pits (MPs) on the etched substrate. The results showed that the hybrid SiMP/SiNP arrays trapped cells and restricted the cell spreading. Thus, this approach is of great significance for the study of independent growth behavior of cells on the substrate in the field of single neuron research.