| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session BI-TuA |
| Session: | Engineered Cellular Interfaces |
| Presenter: | M.C. Davies, University of Nottingham, UK |
| Authors: | A.J. Urquhart, University of Nottingham, UK M. Taylor, University of Nottingham, UK D.G. Anderson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology R. Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology M.R. Alexander, University of Nottingham, UK M.C. Davies, University of Nottingham, UK |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
In the field of tissue engineering, the search is on for the optimum polymer scaffold material to support the adhesion and proliferation of stem cells for organ regeneration. To accelerate this process, Anderson et al., developed a high throughput screening methodology for the assessment of stem cell interactions with a large combinatorial library of over 500 copolymers1. Initial cellular behaviour with these materials will be driven by surface-cell interactions but until very recently, there was no rapid method of measuring the surface chemistry of such spatially patterned arrays. We report on the first high-throughput screening of the surface chemistry (ToF-SIMS and XPS) and wettability (contact angle, surface energetics) of large copolymer library array spatially patterned as 300 micron islands and polymerized in-situ on a single poly(HEMA) slides. The copolymer library is designed to exhibit a range of surface phenomena and their ability to support the growth of cells (eg, endothelial stem cells, bacteria) was assessed. Statistical analysis of the large surface and biological data sets reveals important relationships linking surface properties and cell interactions that point to the key surface phenomenon that could lead to the development of optimised copolymer surfaces for the development of polymeric scaffolds.