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Polymers with nano‐dimensional surface features enhance bladder smooth muscle cell adhesion
Author(s) -
Thapa Anil,
Webster Thomas J.,
Haberstroh Karen M.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.20037
Subject(s) - materials science , plga , polymer , adhesion , biomedical engineering , extracellular matrix , surface roughness , tissue engineering , nanometre , nanotechnology , adhesive , cell adhesion , composite material , chemical engineering , nanoparticle , layer (electronics) , chemistry , medicine , biochemistry , engineering
Previous studies investigating the design of synthetic bladder wall substitutes have involved polymers with micro dimensional structures. Since the body is made up of nano‐structured components (e.g., extracellular matrix proteins), the focus of the present in vitro study was to design nano‐structured polymers for use as synthetic bladder constructs that mimic the topography of natural bladder tissue. In order to complete this task, novel nano‐structured biodegradable polymeric films of poly‐lactic‐co‐glycolic‐acid (PLGA), poly‐ether‐urethane (PU), and poly‐caprolactone (PCL) were fabricated and separately treated with various concentrations of NaOH (for PLGA and PCL) and HNO 3 (for PU) for select time periods. These treatments reduced the polymer surface feature dimensions from conventional micron dimensions to biologically inspired nanometer dimensions. Select cytocompatibility properties of these biomaterials were tested in vitro. Results provide the first evidence that adhesion of bladder smooth muscle cells is enhanced as polymer surface feature dimensions are reduced into the nanometer range. In addition, surface analysis results reveal that the polymer nanometer surface roughness is the primary design parameter that increases bladder smooth muscle cell adhesion. For this reason, the “next generation” of tissue‐engineered bladder constructs with increased efficacy should contain surfaces with nanometer (as opposed to micron) surface features. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 67A: 1374–1383, 2003