Electrically modulated attachment and detachment of animal cells cultured on an ITO patterning electrode surface

Background Micropatterning techniques of animal cells have been reported by numerous groups and fall into 6 major classifications (1). There are 1) photolithography, 2) soft lithography, 3) ink jet printing, 4) electron beam writing, 5) electrochemical desorption of self-assembled monolayers, and 6) dielectrophoresis. These six cell micropatterning techniques cannot modulate both the attachment and detachment of animal cells iteratively at the same positions, however. The present work has demonstrated that a weak electrical potential can modulate the attachment and detachment of specifically positioned adhesive animal cells using a patterned indium tin oxide (ITO)/ glass electrode culture system [1], (Figure 1).