Fabrication and characterization of thermoresponsive polystyrene nanofibrous mats for cultured cell recovery

Rapid cell growth and rapid recovery of intact cultured cells are an invaluable technique to maintain the biological functions and viability of cells. To achieve this goal, thermoresponsive polystyrene (PS) nanofibrous mat was fabricated by electrospinning of PS solution, followed by the graft polymerization of thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(PIPAAm) on PS nanofibrous mats. Image analysis of the PS nanofiber revealed a unimodal distribution pattern with 400 nm average fiber diameter. Graft polymerization of PIPAAm on PS nanofibrous mats was confirmed by spectroscopic methods such as ATR-FTIR, ESCA, and AFM. Human fibroblasts were cultured on four different surfaces, PIPAAm-grafted and ungrafted PS dishes and PIPAAm-grafted and ungrafted PS nanofibrous mats, respectively. Cells on PIPAAm-grafted PS nanofibrous mats were well attached, spread, and proliferated significantly much more than those on other surfaces. Cultured cells were easily detached from the PIPAAm-grafted surfaces by decreasing culture temperature to 20 °C, while negligible cells were detached from ungrafted surfaces. Moreover, cells on PIPAAm-grafted PS nanofibrous mats were detached more rapidly than those on PIPAAm-grafted PS dishes. These results suggest that thermoresponsive nanofibrous mats are attractive cell culture substrates which enable rapid cell growth and recovery from the culture surface for application to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.