Rheology of Cholesteryl Liquid Crystals for use as cells adhesion substrate

C. F. Soon1, M. Youseffi2, N. Blagden1, M.C.T. Denyer1

1School
of Pharmacy, University of Bradford, BD7 1DP, United Kingdom
2School of Engineering, Design and Technology-Medical Engineering, University of Bradford, BD7 1DP, United Kingdom

Introduction Materials and Methods

Liquid crystals are the fourth phase of matter and have the ability to splay, twist and
bend. Because of these switchable physical properties, they have been used in the liquid
crystal display industry for the past 30-40 years. The application of liquid crystals in
biology has just began to attract attention. Cholesteryl ester liquid crystals (CELCs)have
shown biocompatilility and can support cell adhesion under ligands free conditions (CF
Soon et al, 2009a). Cholesteryl ester liquid crystals without the functionality of the
extracellular matrix proteins (ECM) ruled out the controversy on whether cells adhesions
to the substrate were mediated by the density or types of adhesion proteins. Dynamic
interactions of cells with liquid crystals formed distinct localised deformation on the liquid
crystal film over a few days indicated the flexibility and elasticity of the liquid crystals (CF
Soon et al, 2009b). Therefore, it is crucial to further characterise the rheology of this
material and investigate the effects of shear rate and strain so that the force transducing
properties of the CELCs can be characterised.
The preparation of the cholesteryl ester liquid crystals was as reported in (CF Soon,
2009a). To understand the visco-elastic properties, amplitude and frequency sweep test
were performed using an Anton Paar Rheoplus GmbH strain-controlled rheometer.
Maintaining at 370C, the material were shear at a gap of 0.5mm between a stationary
heated plate and a rotating 22.5mm diameter disc. Frequency sweep test was performed
at a constant 5% strain amplitude over a shear rate of 0.01 to 10s-1, and the complex
viscosity, storage and the loss moduli were determined. For the amplitude sweep test, the
test material were sheared from 0-100% strain and repeated at various shear rate of 0.01
to 10s-1.

Results and Discussion

Lines drawn to
Frequency Sweep Test estimate the elastic
From the frequency sweep test result (Figure 1), CELC has shown linear visco-elastic modulus of the liquid
behavior at lower shear rate (below 1s-1) where the storage modulus was higher than crystals from the
loss modulus at 5% strain. When the storage modulus crossed over beyond 10s-1, shear stress-strain scatter
thinning were observed with an exponential drop in viscosity. This suggested the shear plots.
rate applied on the liquid crystals should not exceed 10s-1.

Figure 2. Stress-strain curve of cholesteryl ester liquid crystal and the effects of shear rates.

The result in the stress-strain curve at various angular frequency (0.01s-1, 0.1s-1, 1s-1 and
10s-1) of cholesteryl ester liquid crystal approximated a linear elastic behaviour up to
100% strain where stress is almost linearly proportional to strain (γ). For visco-elastic
liquid crystals, the modulus of elasticity is dependent on angular frequency with the slope
of the lines decreasing as the angular frequency was stepped down (Figure 2). Hence,
the linear regime is similar to the rubber elasticity model and this model is applicable to
the cholesteric system deformation at low strain and frequency sweep (Ramos et al.
2002). Very few studies on the rheology of cholesteric liquid crystal have been carried out
in the past (Zapotocky et al. 1999; Ramos et al. 2002; Yada et al. 2003). Those that have
been studied are also varied in terms of the preparation and materials used. However,
the closest approximation of elastic modulus for cholesteric liquid crystal at low
frequencies were calculated at 0.1 dyne/cm2 or equivalent to 1 x 10-2Pa (Zapotocky et al.
1999). From our experimental result, the elastic modulus of the cholesteryl liquid crystals
are angular frequency dependent and we obtained ~1.3 x10-3Pa at 0.01s-1.
As the angular frequency was stepwise decreased from 10s-1 to 0.01s-1, the viscous
Figure 1. Frequency sweep test result for cholesteryl ester liquid crystals. behavior of the liquid crystals were changed over to elastic behavior when storage
modulus overtook the loss modulus (Figure 3) at strain below 20% (Figure 3D) . Below
20% of strain, the material showed linear elastic properties (Figure 3D) which is essential
Amplitude Sweep Test for cells mechanic studies.

A B C D

Figure 3. Effects of shear rate (angular frequency) to the storage and loss modulus with respect to strain on the liquid crystals.

Conclusions

Under shear stress, cholesteryl ester liquid crystals exhibited linear elastic behavior at angular frequency below 1s-1 and 20% strain. At higher angular frequencies, the material
behaves as a pseudo-plastic and this suggested that it is a weak gel. However, cells move at relatively low speeds, thus the result from the low angular frequencies are more
representative of the forces exerted by cells on the CELCs. The determining of these rheological properties at low frequencies will therefore enabled the forces exerted by cells on
CELCs to be quantified.

Boyer, H. F. (1987). Atlas of stress-strain curves, ASM International, Metals Park, Ohio.
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