Figure 1: Schematic of the procedure for creating cell micropatterns. Polystyrene dishes are coated with PDMS (a). Separately, infrared absorption films are processed by a low-power Nd:YAG laser on an inverted microscope to remove a small part of the film by melt ejection (b). The PDMS-coated substrates are treated with oxygen plasma, through the laser-processed film as a plasma-shielding mask that is brought into contact with the substrates, to locally form oxygen-rich hydrophilic regions at the surface (c). The substrates after the removal of the mask were treated with Pluronic F-127 (d) and then ECM (gelatin) (e). ECM and cells adhere preferentially to the plasma-treated regions (f).