Goal: To bond fibronectin to the coverslip in a specific micropattern and all other parts of the surface should be covered with PLL-PEG.
Rationale: Cells can adhere to fibronectin, but not to PLL-PEG.
This is our adaptation of the protocol from: Azioune, Carpi, Tseng, Thery & Piel, Protein Micropatterns: A Direct Printing Protocol Using Deep UVs, in METHODS IN CELL BIOLOGY, VOL. 97, (2010)
Protocol summary from Azioune 2010
Summary of protocol
Cover the coverslip with TI prime to get PS to stick. Plasma treat the PS surface to get PLL-PEG to stick.
Deep UV irradiation through the mask performs two things: 1) Fibronectin will bond to UV-activated polystyrene (PS), 2) Deep UV oxidizes/burns through PLL-PEG and removes it from the PS surface
The UV irradiated surface can be stored for a long time before adding fibronectin (that is a sensitive and unstable protein)
