Protein electrostatic self-assembly on poly(DL-lactide) scaffold to promote osteoblast growth

The development of protein coating on 3D biodegradable scaffold based on electrostatic self-assembly (ESA) to promote osteoblast growth is reported. Poly (ethylenimine) (PEI) was employed to obtain a stable positively charged surface on poly(DL-lactide) (PDL-LA) substrate. An extracellular-matrix (ECM)-like biomacromolecule, gelatin, was chosen as the polyelectrolyte to deposit on the activated PDL-LA substrate via ESA technique. Osteoblast (MC3T3) was then cultured on unmodified and gelatin-modified PDL-LA scaffolds. Osteoblast testing regarding total intracellular protein content, total DNA content, cell activity, and cell morphology on the ECM-like multilayer-modified PDL-LA scaffold showed that osteoblast growth was promoted. It will be easy to replace the gelatin with osteoinductive proteins or other polyelectrolytes to promote specific osteoblast functions. In comparison with conventional coating methods, polyelectrolyte multilayers are easy and stable to prepare. They may be a good choice for the surface modification of complex biomedical devices, especially for the 3D tissue-engineering scaffold. These very flexible systems allow broad medical applications for drug delivery and tissue engineering.