Azo polymers for photo-reversible bio-surfaces

细胞在表面的相互作用最近引起了许多材料化学家和物理学家的注意，因为现在有了强大的工具来在最小规模的自然环境中探测这些微妙的结构，许多问题现在可以用化学术语来描述。了解允许细胞存活和功能的表面条件，然后就可以在再生医学以及组织修复和替换方面取得生物医学工程的进展。除了暴露在细胞表面的分子基团的化学作用外，生长中的细胞对表面材料的柔软度、厚度、水分含量、-或+电荷以及离子浓度和梯度也非常敏感。一般来说，人造表面看起来越“生物”(湿、软、带电、温暖、富含离子和特定的官能团)，它在细胞黏附、存活和功能方面的生物相容性就越强。为了控制生物界面，人们需要能够在真实的生物环境中原位测量所有这些性质，并具有使用简单的制备方案在大范围内操纵和调节这些性质的能力。

Cell interactions on surfaces have attracted much recent attention from many materials chemists and physicists, since powerful tools are now available to probe these delicate structures in their native environment at the smallest scales, and many questions can now be framed in chemical terms. Understanding the surface conditions that permit cells to live and function, then permits biomedical engineering advances in regenerative medicine, and tissue repair and replacement. In addition to the chemistry of molecular groups exposed on a surface to a cell, growing cells are also very sensitive to the softness of the surface material, the thickness, the water content, - or + charge, and ion concentrations and gradients. In general, the more 'biological' the artificial surface can be made to appear (wet, soft, charged, warm, and rich in ions and specific functional groups), the more biocompatible it will be with respect to cell adhesion, survival, and function. In order to control the biological interface then, one needs to be able both to measure all of these properties in situ in a true biological environment, and to have the power to manipulate and tune these properties over a wide range with simple preparation protocols.