| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session BI-WeM |
| Session: | Cell-Surface Interactions |
| Presenter: | J.D. Whittle, University of South Australia |
| Authors: | J.D. Whittle, University of South Australia D.E. Robinson, University of South Australia |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Often the materials selected for culture-ware, scaffolds or bandages are chosen for their bulk properties and low cost, rather than their suitability for cell culture. Consequently cell culture frequently requires relatively large quantities of expensive growth factors (GFs) and other supplements to be added to the culture medium. Cell response to surfaces is known to be heavily influenced by surface chemistry and topology, which may impact on cell attachment, proliferation or differentiation. These surface properties can affect the growth of cells, they do so by influencing the cellular microenvironment. Often this is by modulating the composition and conformation of adsorbed proteins.
A number of approaches to healing of chronic wounds involve the culture of patient cells on bandages or scaffolds for delivery direct into wounds. In this paper, we describe the approach we have taken in our lab to provide a suitable microenvironment for human dermal fibroblasts.
Inspired by the role of the extra-cellular matrix (ECM) in vivo, we use a plasma polymer surface to bind glycoaminoglycans (GAGs) which are able to capture the growth factor FGF2 from solution. By binding the GAG and growth factor to the culture surface, we achieve significantly higher cell proliferation rates at low serum concentrations than adding these components directly into the culture media. We show that binding GAG and GF to the surface has a cooperative effect, in which the combination of these biomolecules is much more effective than either of them alone. In addition to better performance, the pre-loading of culture surfaces avoids the need to add these reagents to the culture medium and therefore reduces the cost of cell culture. We also show how this approach can be translated from 2d cultures to electrospun scaffolds to provide organised dermal structures of fibroblasts and keratinocytes.