Combinatorial Characterization of Cell Interactions with Polymer Surfaces

Published

September 1, 2003

Author(s)

J C. Meredith, J L. Sormana, B G. Keselowsky, A J. Garcia, Alessandro Tona, Alamgir Karim, Eric J. Amis

Abstract

The combinatorial library and high-throughput techniques presented here allow rapid, efficient, and accurate exploration of the effects of microstructure and surface features on cell adhesion and proliferation. The new technique serves as a natural compliment to combinatorial synthetic methods already in use in pharmaceutical and biomaterials research. In particular the method is useful for rapid identification of microstructural and surface features that promote (or reduce) cell adhesion and proliferation, early in the development and characterization of new biomaterials. In the libraries employed here, we have used the LCST phase transition as a novel mechanism for generating diverse surface roughnesses and microstructures in biodegradable polymer mixtures. Osteoblast-like cell adhesion, proliferation, and growth are enhanced by the microstructures and roughnesses encountered within the LCST 2-phase regime, indicating the importance of including phase behavior and microstructural determination in tissue engineering studies. The method is general to polymer mixtures soluble in a common solvent and we anticipate its applicability to the characterization of a wide range of complex biomedical polymer-cell systems.

Citation

Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A

Volume

66A

Issue

No. 3

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

combinatorial methods, non specific effects, polymer bioactivity, polymer blends, polymer blends, polymer-cellular interactions, surfaces and thin films, surfaces and thin films

Citation

Meredith, J. , Sormana, J. , Keselowsky, B. , Garcia, A. , Tona, A. , Karim, A. and Amis, E. (2003), Combinatorial Characterization of Cell Interactions with Polymer Surfaces, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=851928 (Accessed October 11, 2025)