Hierarchically patterned polyurethane microgrooves featuring nanopillars or nanoholes for neurite elongation and alignment

• Lester Uy Vinzons,
• Guo-Chung Dong and
• Shu-Ping Lin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1157–1168, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.96

• patterned nano-/microstructured PU films enhance both PC12 neurite elongation and alignment, showing the potential use of our proposed method for the micro-/nanopatterning of polymers for nerve tissue engineering. Keywords: hierarchical; nanopatterning; neurite alignment; neurite outgrowth; topography

• ) system to create arrays of nanodots and nanopillars combined with microgrooves on the epoxy-based SU-8 negative photoresist [15][16]. While we found an improvement in PC12 neurite alignment on the ridge areas of nanopillared microgrooves, the overall alignment was not significantly different from that of

• –groove substrate. Quantitative analysis of neurite directionality on the grooved substrates reveals an improvement in neurite alignment on the nanopatterned grooves, as can be seen in the increase in the amount of neurites aligned within 15° of the grooves, considering all neurite branches (Figure 4G and