AVS 49th International Symposium
    Biomaterials Thursday Sessions
       Session BI-ThA

Paper BI-ThA8
Oral Keratinocyte Attachment to Chemical Surfaces

Thursday, November 7, 2002, 4:20 pm, Room C-201

Session: Cell Patterning to Engineer Function
Presenter: R.E. Rawsterne, UMIST, UK
Authors: R.E. Rawsterne, UMIST, UK
G.J. Leggett, University of Sheffield, UK
S. Kothari, UMIST, UK
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The control of surface chemistry and topography are key factors in the design and development of next generation biomaterials and prostheses. The importance of surface chemistry has been well established for a variety of cell types, and the importance of surface topography is also gaining momentum. Whilst these are now recognised as being influential in initial cell attachment and growth, and both have been studied independently, there has been little work on examining their combined effects. Furthermore, the effect of these parameters on the behaviour of oral keratinocytes has not been studied. In order to ascertain which chemical functionality would best promote oral keratinocyte attachment, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiolates on gold with varying chain lengths and acid (COOH), alcohol (OH) or methyl (CH@sub 3@) terminal groups were used. To introduce chemical cues to these surfaces SAMs were exposed to UV light through a mask resulting in selective oxidation of specific regions. Following photooxidation, samples were placed in a solution of a contrasting thiol, resulting in the displacement of the oxidised SAM in the exposed region with fresh thiols from solution. Samples exhibiting both single functionality and patterned chemistry were incubated with an oral keratinocyte cell line. For samples with a single functional group, the numbers of attached cells were counted at various time points up to 24h. Attachment to all surfaces was also observed using an inverted microscope and images recorded using a digital camera. It was found that hydroxyl terminated SAMs were the preferred surface for attachment of oral keratinocytes, in contrast to results for the attachment of fibroblasts. This was further investigated by observing the attachment of keratinocytes to patterns comprising of OH/CH@sub 3@ and OH/COOH terminated SAMs.