The role of surface wettability on hepatocyte adhesive interactions and function

In this paper the effect of surface wettability on hepatocyte morphology and function was studied, using clean and octadecylsylane (ODS)-coated glass as a model for hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces, respectively. C3A cells--a hepatoblastoma cell line, and freshly obtained porcine hepatocytes were cultured for a short-time period of up to 4 days on the above substrata. Hepatocyte adhesive interactions were characterized monitoring the initial cell attachment, the overall cell morphology, the formation of focal adhesions, and actin filaments. Since hepatocytes showed a clear tendency for homotypic adhesion on ODS, specific E-cadherin staining was used to visualize the intercellular contacts by immunofluorescence microscopy. Additionally, functional assays were carried out to monitor proliferation, metabolic activity, and albumin synthesis of C3A cells. It could be shown that both C3A cells and normal porcine hepatocytes spread better on hydrophilic glass; spreading being accompanied by the development of pronounced actin stress fibers and focal adhesion contacts. In contrast, on hydrophobic substrata predominant cell-cell interactions took place which led to intense E-cadherin staining in the intercellular contacts of porcine hepatocytes but not in C3A cells. On the other hand, metabolic activity and growth of C3A cells were reduced on hydrophobic ODS, but albumin synthesis was similar on both surfaces. It was concluded that the wettability of materials has a strong influence on the attachment and morphology of hepatocytes while the influence of surface properties on the functional activity of hepatocytes still remains to be elucidated.