Mammalian Fibroblast Cells Show Strong Preference for Laser-Generated Hybrid Amorphous Silicon-SiO2 Textures

Background In this study, we investigated a method to produce bioactive hybrid amorphous silicon and silicon oxide patterns using nanosecond laser pulses. Methods Microscale line patterns were made by laser pulses on silicon wafers at different frequencies (25, 70 and 100 kHz), resulting in ablation patterns with frequency-dependent physical and chemical properties. Results Incubating the laser-treated silicon substrates with simulated body fluid demonstrated that the physicochemical properties of the laser-treated samples were stable under these conditions, and favored the deposition of bone-like apatite. More importantly, while NIH 3T3 fibroblasts did colonize the untreated regions of the silicon wafers, they showed a strong preference for the laser-treated regions, and further discriminated between substrates treated with different frequencies. Conclusions Taken together, these data suggest that laser materials processing of silicon-based devices is a promising avenue to pursue in the production of biosensors and other bionic devices.