The Role of Albumin and Fibronectin in the Adhesion of Fibroblasts to Plasma Polymer Surfaces

Abstract

Plasma polymer coatings are widely applied to the modification of biomaterial surfaces. In order to understand the role of the surface in the adhesion of cells to these materials, it is necessary to understand how protein adsorption is influenced by the plasma polymer surface chemistry. In coated scaffolds, plasma polymerised allylamine has been found to encourage fibroblast adhesion while plasma polymerised hexane reduces cell adhesion. To study the role of proteins in this process, albumin and fibronectin are pre‐adsorbed individually, competitively or sequentially to the plasma polymer surfaces before seeding them with a culture of 3T3 fibroblasts. Significant dependence upon the protein pre‐adsorption was seen in the adhered cell numbers. In situ measurements of protein adsorption using a quartz crystal microbalance help to elucidate the factors that govern the observed cellular response. The measured protein adsorption is rationalised in terms of our knowledge of the surface chemistry of these plasma polymers. We found that high cell adhesion is related to the ability of fibronectin to displace albumin. This ability is reduced on the hydrophobic plasma polymer as well as by adsorbing albumin and fibronectin sequentially.

Dorsal and Ventral Stimuli in Cell–Material Interactions: Effect on Cell Morphology

“…BSA is known to be a non-adhesive protein on which cells cannot adhere and spread. By contrast, cells remain in a rounded-like morphology on BSA-coated materials [31][32][33]. Experiments have been done using both FN-coated glass and FN assembled fibrils on PEAspc as substrates for ventral cell adhesion.…”

Effects of human fibronectin and human serum albumin sequential adsorption on preosteoblastic cell adhesion

“…14 Fn is known to modulate a number of cell behaviors, including adhesion, migration, and differentiation. [20][21][22][23][24] Sousa et al have investigated the influence of Fn-Alb coadsorbed layers (on titania) on the adhesion and morphology of preosteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells, and note that while cell adhesion generally correlates with extent of Fn adsorption, the Fn effect can be enhanced in the presence of a modest amount of Alb. Blood proteins such as albumin are generally much more concentrated in biological solution than are matrix proteins.…”

Responsive Cell–Material Interfaces

“…As the cell response to a surface strongly depends on the properties (e.g., type, concentration, distribution and motility) of the surface adsorbed proteins, [30,39] modification of the substrate surface properties [36,[40][41][42] affects the nature of the protein layer and thus provides control over the response of cells to the biomaterial [43,44]. Three surface properties have been identified as main determinants of cell behavior and cell fate: surface chemistry, surface topography and surface elasticity or stiffness [5].…”