Bioinspired Materials Science and Engineering

3Construction of Three‐Dimensional Tissues with Capillary Networks by Coating of Nanometer‐ or Micrometer‐Sized Film on Cell Surfaces

Michiya Matsusaki^1,2, Akihiro Nishiguchi^1,3, Chun‐Yen Liu^1,4, and Mitsuru Akashi^1,5,*

¹ Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

² PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Saitama, Japan

³ DWI Leibniz‐Institute for Interactive Materials, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

⁴ University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

⁵ Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

3.1 Introduction

The surface of a cell is a coating covering a nanometer‐ or micrometer‐sized polymer thin film, such as liquids, gases, or solids on the surfaces of substrates, such as paper or fabric. This is used for different applications in industrial fields because functional materials may change the surface properties of the substrates, such as their wettability [1], adhesion [2–4], physical or chemical resistance [5, 6]. In the case of a chemical coating, there are many methodologies, such as vapor deposition [7–9], spraying [10–12], roll‐to‐roll coating [13, 14], and chemical/electrochemical techniques to modify and control the surface properties of the substrates for further applications. The concept of coating is also important in the development of biological and tissue engineering fields. For example, the surface control of protein or polymer to control cell adhesion [15], growth direction [16, 17]