Wax-Impregnated Cotton Fabrics as Cell Culture Platform

Abstract

Microwell plates are widely used in various cell-based assay and drug screening. Usually these plates are made from non-biodegradable materials such as polystyrene or polyethylene. In this report, we propose the use of wax-impregnated cotton fabrics as an alternative microwell plate that is easy to fabricate, simple to use, sustainable and environmentally friendlier. Several researchers recently used soft lithography and photolithography technique to fabricate various cell culture platforms. Our proposed method consists instead of simple dipping and drying process. The platform is made of a series of fabrics being stacked and held together with various wax formulations. With the exception of the base layer, each fabric layer has a circular hole opening with increasing diameter towards the top layer; thereby forming a well where cells are cultured at its flat bottom. We characterized the chemical and physical properties of the platform surface which affect cells attachment and proliferation. These properties include the surface chemistry, hydrophobicity and roughness. We cultured human skin fibroblast (HSF 1184 Cell Line) on the platform as our preliminary proof of concept. We observed proliferation of the cells after 24 hours. The result indicates the potential use of the platform for future cell-based assay applications.