Control of cells behavior through topography of substrates is an important theme in biomedical applications. Among many materials used as substrates, polymers show advantages since they can be tailored by chemical functionalization. Fabrication of polymer substrates with nano‐ and microscale topography requires processing by lithography, microprinting, etching, and so forth. In this work, we introduce a different approach based on anisotropic elastic properties of polymerized smectic A (SmA) liquid crystal elastomer (LCE). When the SmA liquid crystal coating is deposited onto a substrate with planar alignment of the molecules, it develops nanogrooves at its free surface. After photopolymerization, these nanogrooves show an excellent ability to align human dermal fibroblasts over large areas. The alignment quality is good for both bare SmA LCE substrates and for substrates coated with fibronectin. The SmA LCE nano‐topographies show a high potential for tissue engineering.

中文翻译：

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通过具有纳米凹槽的近晶液晶弹性体涂层进行单元排列。

通过底物的形貌控制细胞行为是生物医学应用中的一个重要主题。在用作基材的许多材料中，聚合物显示出优势，因为它们可以通过化学功能化进行定制。具有纳米和微米级形貌的聚合物基板的制造需要通过光刻、微印刷、蚀刻等进行处理。在这项工作中，我们介绍了一种基于聚合近晶 A (SmA) 液晶弹性体 (LCE) 的各向异性弹性特性的不同方法。当 SmA 液晶涂层沉积在分子平面排列的基板上时，它会在其自由表面形成纳米凹槽。光聚合后，这些纳米凹槽显示出在大面积上排列人类真皮成纤维细胞的出色能力。对于裸 SmA LCE 基板和涂有纤连蛋白的基板，对齐质量都很好。SmA LCE 纳米形貌显示出组织工程的巨大潜力。