Surface induced in vitro angiogenesis: surface property is a determinant of angiogenesis

The control of cellular responses on substrate surfaces is essential for logical surface design aiming at endothelialized, vital implant devices. In this paper, the surface property that alters cell adhesion, spreading, migration, and proliferation processes is shown to be a determinant of endothelial cell assembly or angiogenesis in vitro. This was clearly demonstrated on slightly hydrophobic cellulosic surfaces, which induced organized three-dimensional cellular assemblies of bovine thoracic endothelial cells. The results indicated that this was driven by enhanced migratory response and/or retraction or involution of two-dimensional adherent cells, in which cell-cell interaction was enforced in a time dependent fashion. The present study strongly suggests that the mechanism leading to in vitro angiogenesis is primarily due to a weak cell-substrate interaction relative to cell-cell interaction.