Cell adhesion to the surfaces of polymeric beads

The main goal of this study is to determine the relationship between the surface properties of polymeric materials and fibroblastic cell adhesion. Therefore, two series of polymeric beads, PHEMA and PS, were tested in microcarrier-facilitated cell culture systems. The crosslinked PHEMA beads were prepared by suspension polymerization of HEMA monomer in the presence of various acrylic monomers (i.e. MMA, EGDMA, DMAEMA). The hydrophobic PS beads were used after coated with different alkylamine monomers (i.e. EDA, ALAM, TEA) by plasma polymerization process. The cell culturing studies were performed with BHK cells in stationary culture conditions and the cell adhesion characteristics were determined by the common methods. Attachment of the BHK cells on these microcarriers were satisfactorily modeled by surface saturation type of mathematical expression. The results demonstrated that, there were finite number of sites on the microcarrier surfaces available for adhesion. Number of these sites depends on the surface charge density which was supplied by amine groups and surface wettability. It is possible to achieve desired cell adhesion and also growth, by changing the chemical structure of beads with suitable modification methods.