Group analysis of regulation of fibroblast genome on low-adhesion nanostructures

Nanotopographical material modification represents a possible way of producing surfaces that influence cellular adhesion for biomaterials purposes. Here, two low-adhesion surfaces are studied with human genome microarrays (120 nm diameter pits produced by electron beam lithography and 11 nm high columns produced by colloidal lithography). In order to present the large numbers of results produced in a succinct and easy to understand manner, two types of recent bioinformatics methods were used; iterative group analysis and Ingenuity pathway analysis. These methods allowed the easy comparison of the nanomaterials and showed large-scale changes in areas of extracellular matrix, cell signalling and inflammation. The results demonstrate that whilst modes of cellular response to low-adhesion materials are similar, the more adhesion is reduced, the further ‘shut-down’ of critical cellular activities is observed. We also feel that the analysis used could be of interest to biomaterials scientists looking for easy ways to display microarray data efficiently.