Design and fabrication of Ni nanowires having periodically hollow nanostructures.

We propose a concept for the design and fabrication of metal nanowires having periodically hollow nanostructures inside the pores of an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane using a sacrificial metal. In this study, nickel (Ni) and silver (Ag) were used as the base metal and the sacrificial metal, respectively. Alternating an applied potential between -0.4 and -1.0 V provided alternatively deposited Ni and Ag segments in a Ni-Ag 'barcode' nanowire with a diameter of 18 or 35 nm. After etching away the Ag segments, we fabricated Ni nanowires with nanopores of 12 ± 5.3 nm. Such nanostructure formation is explained by the formation of a Ni shell layer over the surface of the Ag segments due to the strong affinity of Ni(2+) for the interior surfaces of AAO. The Ni shell layer allows the Ni segments to remain even after dissolution of the Ag segments. Because the electroplating conditions can be easily controlled, we could carefully adjust the size and pitch of the periodically hollow nanospaces. We also describe a method for the fabrication of Ni nanorods by forming an Ag shell instead of a Ni shell on the Ni-Ag barcode nanowire, in which the interior of the AAO surfaces was modified with a compound bearing a thiol group prior to electroplating.

Manipulation of cell membrane using carbon nanotube scaffold as a photoresponsive stimuli generator.

We describe, for the first time, the perforation of the cell membrane in the targeted single cell based on the nanosecond pulsed near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation of a thin film of carbon nanotubes that act as an effective photon absorber as well as stimuli generator. When the power of NIR laser is over 17.5 µJ/pulse, the cell membrane after irradiation is irreversibly disrupted and results in cell death. In sharp contrast, the perforation of the cell membrane occurs at suitable laser power (∼15 µJ/pulse) without involving cell termination.

Tailor-made cell patterning using a near-infrared-responsive composite gel composed of agarose and carbon nanotubes.

Micropatterning is useful for regulating culture environments. We developed a highly efficient near-infrared-(NIR)-responsive gel and established a new technique that enables cell patterning by NIR irradiation. As a new culture substratum, we designed a tissue culture plate that was coated with a composite gel composed of agarose and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). A culture plate coated with agarose only showed no response to NIR irradiation. In contrast, NIR laser irradiation induced heat generation by CNTs; this permitted local solation of the CNT/agarose gel, and consequently, selective cell-adhesive regions were exposed on the tissue culture plate. The solation area was controlled by the NIR intensity, magnification of the object lens and CNT concentration in the gel. Furthermore, we formed circular patterns of HeLa cells and linear patterns of 3T3 cells on the same culture plate through selective and stepwise NIR irradiation of the CNT/agarose gel, and we also demonstrated that individual 3T3 cells migrated along a linear path formed on the CNT/agarose gel by NIR irradiation. These results indicate that our technique is useful for tailor-made cell patterning of stepwise and/or complex cell patterns, which has various biological applications such as stepwise co-culture and the study of cell migration.

Near-IR laser-triggered target cell collection using a carbon nanotube-based cell-cultured substrate.

Unique near-IR optical properties of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNTs) are of interest in many biological applications. Here we describe the selective cell detachment and collection from an SWNT-coated cell-culture dish triggered by near-IR pulse laser irradiation. First, HeLa cells were cultured on an SWNT-coated dish prepared by a spraying of an aqueous SWNT dispersion on a glass dish. The SWNT-coated dish was found to show a good cell adhesion behavior as well as a cellular proliferation rate similar to a conventional glass dish. We discovered, by near-IR pulse laser irradiation (at the laser power over 25 mW) to the cell under optical microscopic observation, a quick single-cell detachment from the SWNT-coated surface. Shockwave generation from the irradiated SWNTs is expected to play an important role for the cell detachment. Moreover, we have succeeded in catapulting the target single cell from the cultured medium when the depth of the medium was below 150 µm and the laser power was stronger than 40 mW. The captured cell maintained its original shape. The retention of the genetic information of the cell was confirmed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. A target single-cell collection from a culture medium under optical microscopic observation is significant in wide fields of single-cell studies in biological areas.