Method of manufacturing a cell culture apparatus from inorganic materials

Abstract

A cell culture apparatus includes a substrate, and an inorganic film on the substrate and having a relatively smooth surface for cell growth thereon. Moreover, the relatively smooth surface has a relatively low predetermined surface roughness so that cells grown thereon adhere by chemical adhesion rather than by mechanical interlocking. In other words, the predetermined surface roughness defines surface indentations smaller than a size of corresponding cells to be grown thereon. Accordingly, the interaction between various inorganic materials and cells may be studied based upon chemical adhesion rather than mechanical interlocking. The predetermined surface roughness is preferably less about 10 .mu.m root-mean-square, and more preferably less than about 1 .mu.m root-mean-square. The relatively smooth growth surface is preferably obtained by thermal vacuum evaporation and deposition, followed by annealing of the as-deposited film.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.