Surface treatment of PET multifilament textile for biomedical applications: roughness modification and fibroblast...

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of tuning the topography of textile surfaces for biomedical applications towards modified cell-substrate interactions.

For that purpose, a supercritical Nitrogen N₂ jet was used to spray glass particles on multi-filament polyethylene terephthalate (PET) yarns and on woven fabrics. The influence of the jet projection parameters such as the jet pressure (P) and the standoff distance (SoD) on the roughness was investigated.

The impact of the particles created local filament ruptures on the treated surfaces towards hairiness increase. The results show that the treatment increases the roughness by up to 17 % at P 300 bars and SoD 300 mm while the strength of the material is slightly decreased. The biological study brings out that proliferation can be slightly limited on a more hairy surface, and is increased when the surface is more flat. After 10 days of fibroblast culture, the cells covered the entire surface of the fabrics and had mainly grown unidirectionally, forming cell clusters oriented along the longitudinal axis of the textile yarns. Clusters were generated at yarn crossings.

This approach revealed that the particle projection technology can help tuning the cell proliferation on a textile surface.