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Preparation of Thermoresponsive Nanostructured Surfaces for Tissue Engineering
Published on: March 1, 2016
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Star-Shaped Thermoresponsive Polymers with Various Functional Groups for Cell Sheet Engineering
Yu Sudo1, Ryuki Kawai1, Hideaki Sakai2
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Materials and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology , 2-12-1 S8-26, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids
|December 20, 2017
Summary
Researchers developed easy-to-prepare, thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) coated Petri dishes using a star-shaped copolymer. These novel PNIPAM-immobilized dishes enable tunable cell adhesion and detachment for efficient cell sheet harvesting.
Area of Science:
- Polymer Chemistry
- Materials Science
- Biotechnology
Background:
- Developing smart materials for cell culture is crucial for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
- Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) exhibits thermoresponsive properties, enabling temperature-controlled cell adhesion and detachment.
- Hyperbranched polymers offer unique structural advantages for surface functionalization and material design.
Purpose of the Study:
- To facilely prepare poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-immobilized Petri dishes for cell culture applications.
- To investigate the utility of a star-shaped copolymer of hyperbranched polystyrene (HBPS) with PNIPAM arms (HBPS-g-PNIPAM) for surface functionalization.
- To tune cell adhesion and detachment properties by introducing polar functional groups onto the HBPS-g-PNIPAM copolymer.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of hyperbranched polystyrene (HBPS) via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) self-condensing vinyl polymerization (SCVP).
- Grafting of PNIPAM from the terminal sites of HBPS to form HBPS-g-PNIPAM.
- Functionalization of HBPS-g-PNIPAM with polar groups (e.g., carboxylic acid, dimethylamino).
- Surface characterization using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and contact angle measurements.
Main Results:
- Successful preparation of uniform, stable, and thermoresponsive PNIPAM-immobilized surfaces using the hyperbranched copolymer structure.
- Demonstration of successful cell sheet harvesting from the functionalized Petri dishes.
- Evidence that cell adhesion and detachment properties can be effectively tuned by incorporating polar functional groups.
Conclusions:
- The star-shaped HBPS-g-PNIPAM copolymer provides an effective platform for facile PNIPAM immobilization on Petri dishes.
- The developed thermoresponsive surfaces facilitate controlled cell adhesion and detachment, enabling efficient cell sheet harvesting.
- The tunability offered by polar functionalization opens avenues for optimizing cell culture conditions for various applications.
