Bioinert Surface: No Cell Adhesion

No Cell Attachment

The Bioinert surface is a thin polyol hydrogel layer that is covalently bound to the ibidi Polymer Coverslip #1.5. In contrast to standard ultra-low attachment (ULA) coatings, Bioinert is completely non-adherent and allows no binding of any biomolecule, even in long-term experiments. Therefore, the Bioinert technology provides a stable passivation in cell-based assays for several days or even weeks.

No Cell-Substrate Interactions

Bioinert creates an environment in which cell-cell interactions dominate over cell-substrate interactions. In fact, the latter are completely blocked. The stability of the Bioinert surface allows for long-term experiments on the very same dish—for several days and even weeks—without the adhesion of any proteins. Even if your cells require medium with a high fetal calf serum concentration, Bioinert prevents any cell or protein from adhering to the surface.

No Prior Preparation

The Bioinert surface is ready-to-use. There is no pre-hydration step necessary. The surface will swell by itself once wetted with buffer or cell medium.

No Autofluorescence

Both the flat, thin bottom material and the excellent optical quality of the ibidi Polymer Coverslip enable high-resolution microscopy without any disruptive autofluorescence.

Application Example: Spheroid Culture and 3D Projection Using the Bioinert Surface

Spheroids were generated from a LifeAct-expressing HT-1080 cell line with an agarose-based liquid overlay technique and transferred to the Bioinert surface for microscopy.

Confocal laser scanning image of an HT-1080 LifeAct spheroid. The image is a projection from a series of confocal sections. The rainbow color scale indicates the distance from the coverslip surface. Warm colors = close to the surface, cold colors = distant from the surface. Microscope: Zeiss LSM 710, Plan Apochromat objective lens 10x/0.45.