Cell adhesion to a series of hydrophilic-hydrophobic copolymers studied with a spinning disc apparatus

Adhesion of cells to substrates strongly influences many of their functions and therefore plays an important role in a variety of processes, including growth, phagocytosis, hemostasis, and the response of tissue to implanted materials. In previous studies, the influence of substrate hydrophilicity on cell adhesion has not been separated from effects due to major differences in other properties of the substrate, such as charge, rigidity, and the specific chemical composition of the materials. In addition, very few careful studies of the force required for cell detachment from various substrates have been performed. In this study, 3T3 cell detachment from a chemically homologous series of copolymers based on hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) and ethylmethacrylate (EMA) was measured with a spinning-disc apparatus. The spinning-disc technique allowed measurements of cell detachment over a wide range of applied shear stress on each sample. Cell detachment did not occur until a critical value of shear stress was exceeded. The critical shear stress of detachment decreased linearly with increasing HEMA content, from 18 dynes/cm2 on poly-EMA to 0 on the polymers containing 83% or more HEMA. "Plating efficiency," calculated as the fraction of cells initially applied which remained after dip rinsing the surfaces, did not vary significantly among most of the copolymers. Dip rinsing, however, exposes the cells to only one, relatively low shear stress (estimated to be somewhat less than 3 dynes/cm2). The existence of a critical shear stress for 3T3 cell detachment suggests that cell adhesion to surfaces cannot be fully understood with single shear stress methods because cells may attach with a wide range of strengths which are either all above or all below the applied shear stress. The influence of surface hydrophilicity on cell adhesion and the variety of forces which may contribute to this phenomenon are discussed.