Cell Attachment-Detachment Control on Temperature-Responsive Thin Surfaces for Novel Tissue Engineering

Temperature-responsive intelligent surfaces, prepared by the modification of an interface mainly with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and its derivatives, have been investigated. Such surfaces exhibit temperature-responsive hydrophilic/hydrophobic alterations with external temperature changes, which, in turn, result in thermally modulated attachment and detachment with cells. The advantage of this system is that cells cultured on such temperature-responsive surfaces can be recovered as single cells and/or confluent cell sheets, while keeping the deposited extracellular matrix intact, simply by lowering the temperature without conventional enzymatic treatment. Here, we focus and compare various methods of producing temperature-responsive surfaces for controlling cell attachment/detachment. Spontaneous cell attachment and detachment using several types of temperature-responsive surfaces are mentioned and various effects, such as film thickness and polymer conformation, are discussed. In addition, the development of the next generation of temperature-responsive surfaces using modifications of the polymer coating to allow for rapid cell recovery is summarized.