The smart thermoresponsive coatings and surfaces that
have been explicitly designed for cell culture are mostly
based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm). This
polymer is characterized by a sudden precipitation on
heating, switching from a hydrophilic to a hydrophobic
state. Mammalian cells cultured on such thermoresponsive
substrates can be recovered as confluent cell sheets,
while keeping the newly deposited extracellular matrix
intact, simply by lowering the temperature and thereby
avoiding the use of deleterious proteases. Thermoresponsive
materials and surfaces are powerful tools for
creating tissue-like constructs that imitate native tissue
geometry and mimic its spatial cellular organization.
Here we review and compare the most representative
methods of producing thermoresponsive substrates for
cell sheet engineering
