AVS 47th International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Wednesday Sessions
       Session BI-WeP

Paper BI-WeP18
Functionalised Plasma Polymers for Control of Cell Attachment

Wednesday, October 4, 2000, 11:00 am, Room Exhibit Hall C & D

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: J.M. Kelly, University of Sheffield, UK
Authors: J.M. Kelly, University of Sheffield, UK
R. Daw, University of Sheffield, UK
R.D. Short, University of Sheffield, UK
Correspondent: Click to Email
Surface chemistry is known to be an important factor in mediating cell attachment and subsequent activity on materials whether in the context of an in vitro culture system, implanted biomaterial or tissue engineered construct. In our studies on alcohol and carbonyl containing surfaces, cell attachment increased almost linearly with functional group concentration (up to 20-30%) whilst on carboxyl containing surfaces a low threshold concentration (approximately 5%) promoted excellent levels of cell attachment above which further increase of carboxyl concentration does not appear to promote greater cell attachment. Using a binary mixture of functional monomer (acrylic acid, methyl vinyl ketone or allyl alcohol) with a diluent hydrocarbon monomer (octa-1,7-diene), thin layers of polymer have been produced by radio frequency (RF) plasma deposition. Polymerisation took place at a pressure of 4x10@super -2@ mbar with the plasma supported by a 13.56 MHz, 2 W continuous wave power supply. X-Ray Photoelectron spectroscopy has shown the surfaces to contain hydrocarbon as well as hydroxyl, carbonyl and carboxyl functionality and that increasing the amount of functional monomer used in the plasma led to an increase of the corresponding functionality in the deposit. A rat osteosarcoma cell line (ROS 17/2.8) and human bone marrow cells were used for cell attachment studies. Cells were seeded at 3x10@super 4@ cells/cm@super 2@ and incubated for 3 h and 24 h in serum containing media. Cell attachment was quantified by direct counting after staining with methylene blue. Cell attachment studies are being carried out in parallel on self assembled monolayers containing similar ranges of functionality to allow comparison of plasma polymerised deposits with model surfaces.