Spatiotemporal control of cell-material interactions contributes to our understanding of cell biology and the development of cell engineering. Here, we first report the reversible and spatio-selective immobilization of nonadherent cells through the use of photoswitchable polymeric materials. The substrate coated with spiropyran-conjugated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) lipids, which bind to cell membranes via the lipid moiety only in their merocyanine form, enabled rapid cell immobilization and release in an on-off manner by irradiation with ultraviolet and visible light, respectively. Our work has the potential to improve the performance of cell manipulations on chips and to enable rapid cell arrangement/sorting on various surfaces.
Keywords: cell manipulation; hydrophobicity; nonadherent cells; photoswitchable materials; spiropyran.