Abstract

Multiphoton processing - a versatile technology platform for the development of standard biomimetic microenvironments for 3D cell culture

Aleksandr Ovsianikov, Assistant Professor, Vienna University of Technology

The subject of this presentation is a group of microfabrication technologies utilizing photochemistry induced by multiphoton absorption of ultra-short laser pulses. Despite the fact that all of these methods employ essentially identical equipment, most prominent example is the two-photon polymerization technique (2PP). The 2PP is also referred to as two-photon-absorbed photopolymerization, two-photoninduced polymerization, two-photon lithography, two-photon laser scanning lithography, multiphoton-excited microfabrication, nonlinear lithography 3D multiphoton lithography, 3D laser lithography or simply direct laser writing. The development of multiphoton processing technologies showed considerable advances, especially within the last decade. Their recent applications in cell biology and tissue engineering indicate the emergence of a new technology platform in response to an urgent need for customized cell microenvironments mimicking the complexity of the natural extra-cellular matrix. Fabrication of 2D microstructured substrates, complex 3D scaffolds, containing actively induced topographies, and immobilization of biomolecules in a spatially defined manner was demonstrated with these techniques. The reviewed reports demonstrate that the multiphoton processing methods can be used to study a wide variety of relevant biological questions. Fabrication of complex 3D constructs in accordance to a computer-aided design model offers a true engineering dimension to designing of cell-culture matrices. Their parameters can be adapted to study specific biological and tissue processes. The possibility of precisely adjusting the biomechanical and biochemical properties of produced matrix might finally allow separation of the influence of these two parameters on cell behavior in 3D.