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The role of surface zeta potential and substratum chemistry for regulation of dermal fibroblasts interaction
Author(s) -
Altankov G.,
Richau K.,
Groth Th.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
materialwissenschaft und werkstofftechnik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.285
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1521-4052
pISSN - 0933-5137
DOI - 10.1002/mawe.200300699
Subject(s) - chemistry , zeta potential , wetting , adhesion , contact angle , biophysics , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , materials science , nanoparticle , engineering , biology
Synthetic materials considered for biohybrid skin or other tissue engineering applications have to support cellular interaction and colonisation of implants. However, despite the number of studies reported in the literature, there is no agreement on the principal factors applicable to modulate the interaction with cells, such as the wettability of biomaterials, their surface potential and chemistry of the surface. Particularly, in this study we were interested on the impact of surface chemistry and net surface (zeta) potential on dermal fibroblasts. To address this question self assembled monolayers of silanes on glass, further derivatized with different functional groups, were used to study the adhesion and proliferation of human skin fibroblasts in response to these factors. The model surfaces were characterized using streaming potential (zeta potential) and water contact angle measurements. All samples were found to be negatively charged at physiological pH (regardless of the different chemistry) increasing (or equal ∼) the magnitude of the negative potential in the following order: hydroxy (OH) < amine (NH2) ∼ epoxy (EPOXY) < carboxyl (COOH) < three‐fluorocarbon (CF3) < sulfonic (SO3) functionalities. The interaction of fibroblast characterized by the effectiveness of cell adhesion, spreading and actin stress fibres formation decreased almost in the opposite order: NH 2 > OH > EPOXY > SO 3 > COOH > CF 3 functions. The surfaces were found also to be highly wettable, except CF 3 . Interestingly, the best cellular interaction was found on the moderately wettable NH 2 surface representing water contact angle (CA) of 65°, and the worst, on the least wettable CF 3 surface (CA 85°) indicating that not only the surface potential but also the type of functional groups may play an important role. The organisation of α5 and β3 integrins generally followed the same trend of less clustering in focal adhesion plaques when the negative potential increased, except on SO 3 surface, where β3 but not α5 integrins were greatly expressed. Cell growth however, showed a significant decrease on highly charged COOH and SO 3 surfaces, as well as, on non‐polar CF 3 functions. The best proliferation response was obtained on surfaces with primary amine groups. The results indicate that the surface (zeta) potential might be a critical parameter for cellular interactions, but also the substratum wettability and the type of functional groups have to be controlled in order to improve the biocompatibility of material surfaces.