Stepped Cell Sheet Surface for One-Directional Cell Alignment

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing cell culture substrates fail to effectively align the extension direction of cells due to flat surfaces influencing alignment in unintended directions, including the bottom surfaces of space structures, leading to inconsistent cell orientation.

Innovation Solution

A cell sheet-forming member with a surface comprising flat portions and recession/protrusion portions, where the recession/protrusion portions form stepped structures with a specific pitch and aspect ratio, facilitating controlled cell adherence and alignment.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Manufacturing precision

If a cell culture substrate with space structures is used, then cell orientation control is improved, but multiple flat surfaces (side wall, top, and bottom surfaces) create conflicting alignment directions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecell orientation alignmentVSAvoidmultiple flat surfaces creating conflicting directions

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The invention extracts and eliminates the problematic bottom surface from the space structure design. By making the bottom surface absent or non-flat, the conflicting alignment direction is removed, leaving only the side wall surface to guide cell orientation in the desired direction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The invention applies different surface properties to different regions: the side wall surface is designed with specific flat surfaces for cell alignment, while the bottom surface is either removed or made non-flat to avoid creating conflicting alignment signals. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Ease of manufacture

If the bottom surface of space structures is made flat and continuous, then ease of manufacture is improved, but cell extension direction becomes misaligned with the intended direction

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveflat continuous bottom surfaceVSAvoidcell extension direction control

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The invention removes the bottom surface entirely or makes it non-flat, extracting the source of the conflicting alignment signal. This eliminates the problem of cells aligning with the bottom surface instead of the intended side wall direction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of making the bottom surface flat and continuous (the conventional approach), the invention inverts the approach by making it non-flat or absent, thereby solving the cell alignment problem that arose from the conventional design.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

Data Source

PatentUS12516279B2Cell sheet-forming member, method for producing cell sheet-forming member, and method for producing cell sheet

Publication Date: 2026.01.06 OJI HLDG CORP

AI summary

A cell sheet-forming member provided with a surface for forming a cell sheet, wherein the surface comprises a plurality of flat parts and a plurality of concavo-convex parts. Each flat part has a shape extending along a first direction and the plurality of the flat parts are aligned along a second direction intersecting with the first direction over the entire surface. Either of convex parts or concave parts have a stepped structure and individual concave and convex parts include a plurality of the stepped structures which fill gaps between flat parts adjacent to each other, wherein the pitch of said stepped structures is from 100 nm to 10 μm inclusive.