Thrombogenicity of microfluidic chip surface manipulation: Facile, one-step, none-protein technique for extreme wettability contrast micropatterning

Surface engineering of well-defined micro-nanoscale surface topographies on polymeric materials of microfluidic chip has been explored as a promising strategy for platelet function testing and clinical diagnostics. However, the current methodologies of constructing platelet-patterned surfaces require different bioactive ligands with laborious and complicated steps, and bioactive proteins are expensive and easy to deactivate. To address these issues, by selective exposure of the nanoparticles in a silica doped silicone and surface topography tuning via an ultraviolet laser, we introduced a simple, one-step, cost-effective strategy for tuning of different states of wetting characteristics simultaneously and serve as a thrombogenic polymer surface. Microscale in situ observations show that the specific micro-nano hierarchical structure and mechanism of extreme wettability conversion in turn trigger the platelet activation and aggregation. In-vitro investigations show that both the micro-topography and wettability of microchannel are important factors for fabricating blood compatible, or high thrombogenic materials. We expect such a simple, no-protein technique could serve as a low-cost platform for biomaterials and biosensors, and may lead to a new protein-free methodology for coagulation tests and clinical diagnosis.