Plasmonic nanoparticles based flexible micro stripe pattern for cellular behavior regulation and localized pH detection

Extracellular microenvironment plays an important role in the growth, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of cells, the detection of biochemical microenvironment surrounding cells is highly desired in the early diagnosis of disease. This work reports a novel dual-functional platform which integrates the self-assembled gold nanorods array with flexible micro stripe pattern for cell regulation and localized pH detection. Through the restricted topography of the PDMS stipe pattern, HeLa cells show a morphology transition and orientation along the micro structure. Based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect of gold nanorods array, the variation of pH level between regulated cells and unregulated counterpart can be detected. This strategy may propel a better understanding of cellular behavior regulation and its intrinsic mechanism, which builds a pathway to realize the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases.