Osteoblast Cell Membrane Hybrid Bilayers for Studying Cell-Cell Interactions

Published

September 30, 2003

Author(s)

John T. Elliott, Alessandro Tona, John T. Woodward IV, Curtis W. Meuse, H M. Elgendy, Anne L. Plant

Abstract

Osteopath-like cells were grown on a surface that presents cell membrane components to the cells in culture. The culture surface was a bilayer formed by the interaction of osteoblast plasma membrane vesicles with an alkanethiol monolayer. We examined the potential of the osteoblast cell membrane hybrid bilayers for promoting osteoblast adhesion, growth and differentiation. UMR-106 osteoblast-like cells cultured on these surfaces are normal in appearance, and in the presence of serum, proliferate as well or better than on control surfaces. The level of alkaline phosphatase production in the presence and absence of serum suggests that the osteoblast-like cells retain their differentiated phenotype, and appear to respond to the cell surface ligands presented by the osteoblast hybrid bilayer membrane. These observations suggest that these biomimetic membrane surfaces support osteoblast cell growth, allow the cells to maintain their differentiation state, and may be suitable as a model system to probe cell-cell interactions.

Citation

Biomacromolecules

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

alkaline phosphatase, alkanethiol, biomimetic membranes, cell membrane vesicle, cell-cell interaction, osteoblast

Citation

Elliott, J. , Tona, A. , Woodward, J. , Meuse, C. , Elgendy, H. and Plant, A. (2003), Osteoblast Cell Membrane Hybrid Bilayers for Studying Cell-Cell Interactions, Biomacromolecules (Accessed October 9, 2025)